We now employ nine staff at our Sheffield location based in the Quadrant on Parkway Avenue and hope to create additional jobs in the New Year.

The latest additions to the team – Steve Rowe from Barnsley and Craig Harrison from Sheffield – have over 30 years’ experience between them in the building services sector.

Steve has been appointed as Senior Electrical Engineer and prior to this spent six years working in a similar role for a leading design and engineering consultancy based in Leeds.

Craig has joined the Waldeck team as a Mechanical Engineer and has 12 years’ experience in building services engineering.

The Sheffield office is headed up by Ged Smith who was brought in to set up the new division in April and has 25 years’ experience in the building services industry.

With the addition of mechanical and electrical engineering to our list of services Waldeck is now provide all things engineering under one roof.

As well as speeding up communication and enhancing the quality of the whole offering, as you would expect from Waldeck, being able to offer building services engineering also gives us further scope to create innovation and value for our clients.

For more information about our mechanical and electrical division please call Ged Smith on 01142 994 007.

Having been crowned Consulting Engineer of the Year 2011, this year we were narrowly pipped to the post but still delighted to have been chosen as Runners-up against a record entry list of British consultants competing to be top of the industry.

It was also uplifting to see the cream of the construction industry turn out to celebrate the achievements of the past 12 months in spite of what has been another challenging year for the sector.

The ceremony at Lancashire County Cricket Club attracted almost 500 key movers and shakers from the industry and we were delighted to have been recognised as leaders in our field once again.

A £105 million project involving Waldeck Engineering has been officially opened by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.  

The new St George’s Park National Football Centre in Burton-upon-Trent, which will also be the training home for the England senior team and 21 other squads supported by the Football Association, was opened by Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge on 9^th October 2012.

Waldeck was appointed by Buchan Concrete Solutions to design and detail the precast concrete structural frame and over 1,000 individual components including the walls, floors, staircases and landings for the four-star Hilton and the three-star Hampton by Hilton Hotel.

St George’s Park will provide an inspirational centre for the FA to deliver its coach education agenda and a learning and development centre for refereeing, administration, medical and sports science disciplines.

Situated on a 330-acre site in Burton-upon-Trent, St George’s Park is within easy reach of all major transport connections and comprises 12 full-size football pitches including one synthetic pitch and one full-size indoor facility along with a multi-purpose sports hall.

Linking the buildings are players’ changing facilities and a cutting-edge gymnasium and hydrotherapy suite with accompanying sports medicine and sports science facilities.

In addition to the 142-room four star hotel and the 86-room three star hotel there is a regional conference facility, banqueting suite and training and seminar rooms, including a 90-seat lecture theatre and a modern digitally equipped library.

 As one of the fastest growing consulting engineers in the country Waldeck was delighted to be involved with a project of national importance such as this. The centre is a long-awaited and much needed facility and we’re sure it will provide a welcome boost to sport in general and in particular our national game!

Waldeck were delighted to recently receive the news that our BIM work is among the best in the industry after being shortlisted for the final of the Tekla BIM awards. Waldeck were shortlisted for our design on the Bethnal Green Memorial project.

The mould formation and reinforcement design has been particularly difficult and has required many hours of careful co-ordination  with the architectural model referenced into the structural Tekla model. Integral to the project, Waldeck has worked with all of the design team to provide co-ordination for mould formation, engineering design, mould drawings, reinforcement drawings and schedules and on-site works.

Waldeck Founder Paul Waldeck said: “Waldeck have been using BIM in our designs for over four years now, therefore our design teams have expertise in Software such as Tekla, Revit and Nemetscheck and this award is a great testament to Waldeck’s focus on BIM and driving quality in design and of course, the final product”.

The shortlisted projects can all be seen online and the public has been asked to vote for their favourite.

To vote for Waldeck, please do go to:

http://www.tekla.com/uk/Documents/bim-awards-2012/waldeck-bethnal-green-memorial.html

Paul, who appeared on BBC News 24 yesterday (26^th September 2012) speaking about the state of the country’s infrastructure, said the drains and flood defences in the majority of the UK’s large towns and cities were built in Victorian times and are no longer fit for purpose.

Paul explained: “Although new infrastructure is designed for these one-in-30-year storms like the one we have witnessed this week, the government needs to spend more money improving the existing drains, flood defences, flood resilience roads and railways to make the UK fit for the 21st century.

“We also need to take climate change into consideration when upgrading the county’s infrastructure as very intense storms, which didn’t occur 100 years ago, are set to become increasingly common.”

Paul also welcomes changes to UK planning policy which prevent developers from building on flood plains.

“Planning policy with regard to flood risk is much better as developers are no longer able to build on flood plains in the way they have done over the past 20 to 30 years,” said Paul.

“Those mistakes are not being repeated nowadays in the disciplines of design and construction; however, according to a Committee on Climate Change report published in July, there are still 500,000 homes and businesses at significant risk of flooding without more investment.”

Last year the UK government spent £800 million on flood defences and insurers spent £1.4 billion on repairs as a result of floods.

According to Paul, however, this is not enough: “These are big numbers but we have to look at the risk posed by an ageing infrastructure and ask ourselves: is the UK infrastructure fit for the 21st century?

“Every £1 spent on infrastructure yields £7 in gross domestic product (GDP) and with the construction industry floundering in the current climate spending more money on improving infrastructure would be a tremendous boost to the industry.”

Paul also added that encouraging preferential development of brown field sites to reduce impermeable hard surfaces and providing compensatory flood alleviation measures would also greatly improve the present situation.

“These would seem to be obvious benefits,” concluded Paul, “and while I realise politicians have to balance these with the economic challenges of the day, clearly there is a great opportunity here to safeguard over 500,000 homes and business and boost an ailing economy.”

As always, ask him a direct question and you will receive a direct and honest answer. BBC News presenter Adam Parsons went straight in to ask Paul Waldeck on National Television on the 26th September, whether in light of the recent flooding, was the UK’s infrastructure good enough?

Paul replied that the answer to that is balanced in two parts because new infrastructure is designed for these 1 in 30 year storms we are seeing this week and more, we also must design for 1 in 100 year events and take into consideration climate change too. UK planning policy is now about right on Flood Risk as is the national strategy on flooding and flood risk and we certainly are not able to build on Flood Plains now, the way people have done over the past 20-30 years. Those mistakes are not being repeated nowadays in the disciplines of design and construction.

As the second part of that answer, Paul stated that for the majority of our large towns and cities, this infrastructure was built by our great Victorian Engineers over a century ago. Climate change now for the UK means very intense storms the kind which weren’t allowed for back then, so no our old infrastructure needs upgrading and investment.

Paul stated that last year, the UK government spent £800 million on flood defences and insurers spent £1.4bn on repairs as a result of floods, big numbers, however, we have to look at the risk here with 5 million homes potentially at risk of flooding and an ageing infrastructure and ask ourselves, is the UK infrastructure fit for the 21st Century? Paul added that this represents a great opportunity for the politicians to:

• Reduce risk for 5,000,000 households
• Invest in our infrastructure of drains, flood defences, roads and rail to make the UK fit for the 21st Century
• For every £1 spent on infrastructure it yields £7 in GDP and with the construction industry floundering in the current climate it would be a tremendous boost to the industry.
• Encourage preferential development of Brown Field Sites, to reduce impermeable hard surfaces and providing compensatory flood alleviation measures which will improve the present situation greatly.

Paul added that these would seem to be obvious benefits, but the politicians do have to balance this with economic challenges of the day, but clearly there is a great opportunity there.

The Bethnal Green Memorial to commerate the biggest civilian disaster of the second world war in which 173 people lost their lives, is to be showcased at this years London Open House.

The event spanning two days on the 22nd & 23rd of September, has the theme of ‘changing the face of London’ and aims to demonstrate Londons appeal to people who wish to reside there. It aims to demonstrate the rapidly changing and contemporary design London is facing and the Bethnal Green memorial is being showcased.

Waldeck were appointed to design the three bespoke concrete plinths for the memorial and working closely with Harry Paticas of Arboreal architecture overcame various challenges in the process Waldeck’s team of structural engineers used the latest Tekla Structures Building Information Modelling (BIM) software to create detailed 3D models of the pre-cast concrete elements and pattern required to form the mouldage.

Attending the open house will be survivors, relatives of the victims, members of the design team, and childrens activities and local organic produce.

For more information about the Bethnal Green tragedy click here
or for more information on the London openhouse click here

Picture Courtesy of Arboreal Architecture

Waldeck were delighted to be awarded the Siemens Innovation award at the 2012 Lincolnshire business awards.

The judges chose Waldeck as winners of the award for our ‘exceptionally strong commitment to innovation’. Being embedded at the core of Waldecks business strategy, Waldeck encourage innovation at all levels and different areas of the company by hosting an internal innovation award, we have also allowed our innovations to be passed directly on to our clients.

The awards were held at Lincolnshire Showgrounds Epic Centre on the 4th of September, and the evening was hailed a great success. Waldeck director Andrew Dent said “To win an award when it is so unexpected is fantastic and a great achievement, the awards were a great opportunity to see how businesses were prospering despite the current economic climate”

Waldeck were appointed to provide the detailed structural design relating to the pre-cast concrete structure including walls, floors and external brick faced sandwich panels at the new Premier Inn in Dale Street, Manchester.

Now completed the project has been hailed a great success and has been nominated for a Concrete Society award, in the building category.

The split level building has been nominated for its contemporary design the method of construction led to significant savings for the main contractor in the costs associated with temporary works, site generated waste, disruption to the neighbouring properties and reduction in the construction period on site.

The awards are to be held on Thursday 1st November at Intercontinental Park Lane Hotel, London.

The suggested policies indicate that homeowners will now be able to extend their homes by six metres without submitting planning permission, as opposed to three metres (as it is currently). Detached properties will be able to extend by 8 metres without planning permission.

A further £280 million has also been made available to boost the FirstBuy scheme to get more affordable housing for first time buyers and an extra £300 million will be invested in 15,000 new affordable homes and to bring 5000 empty homes back into use.

The government will also allow to lift the compulsary provision of affordable homes on development sites if it can be proven they are “commercially unviable”.

A consultation is still to take place regarding the proposals, but if they are imposed the planning regulations on homes will be changed for the next 3 years.