East Slope contractor Balfour Beatty has won an award in a scheme that recognises the UK’s most considerate construction sites.

The National Site Bronze Award for the East Slope project recognises it as being in the top 11% of those registered on the Considerate Constructors Scheme in 2018.

Fiona Gush, Balfour Beatty's Community and Liaison Manager, collected the National Site Bronze Award at a ceremony in the City of London.

East Slope contractor Balfour Beatty has won an award in a scheme that recognises the UK’s most considerate construction sites. 

The National Site Bronze Award for the East Slope project recognises it as being in the top 11% of those registered on the Considerate Constructors Scheme – which is designed to encourage best practice beyond statutory requirements – throughout the UK and Ireland during 2018.

Fiona Gush, Balfour Beatty's Community and Liaison Manager, collected the award at a ceremony in the City of London, which was also attended by Adam Tyson from East Slope Residences LLP and Allan Spencer, Director of Finance at the University of Sussex.  

The East Slope site, for the development of new student residences at Sussex, was praised for the measures that have been put in place out of consideration for the workforce, neighbours and the general public, and the environment.

The Balfour Beatty East Slope team have worked hard to ensure the minimum standards of the Scheme are met in each of these categories and have organised additional activities to engage with the operatives on site, local residents in Falmer village and the local area, as well as the schools and students on campus.

On site, the focus over the year has been on health. Balfour Beatty have arranged a number of initiatives, such as a personal trainer who has held sessions with site operatives to explain the importance of diet, as well as how to warm up before after physical work and warm down afterwards; and ‘mini medicals’, for people to have checks such as blood pressure and cholesterol and advice on how to improve these if required. 

Meetings and visits to the site by Falmer Parish Council as well as initiatives to clean up litter and tidy the cemetery around the village has helped engagement with Falmer residents living near the site entrance.

To date, Balfour Beatty has worked with the University and Sussex students by arranging site visits, as well as explaining how the company works as a major international contractor. University of Sussex Business School students have used the project as part of an audit module and an engineering student has been employed part-time on the project following a successful summer placement.

Balfour Beatty started work on the development in January 2017 and the first phase opened in September 2018, providing more than 550 bedrooms; about 800 have now been completed. As well as flats and townhouses, the development includes a 24-hour reception, a social hub and a laundry room.

Construction on East Slope continues, with another 200 rooms scheduled to be available for the new academic year in September 2019. More rooms will be opened in phases, up to a total of more than 2,100 by project completion in early 2021. The finished student village will also include several retail units and a centre for student services.

After the award ceremony in April, Geoff Grant, Project Director for Balfour Beatty UK Construction Services, hailed “a fantastic achievement for everyone involved in the project”. He added: “Balfour Beatty and the East Slope project remain committed to the Considerate Constructors Scheme and hopefully we will win a higher award for 2019.”