Issue 2 - April 2006

Blue is the Colour, Pennine are the Team!

You may have noticed an expanding fleet of blue rigs at Pennine as we continue to change the Pennine brand to the livery of our mother company Balfour Beatty.

It's all good news for Pennine and our customers since being acquired by the construction giant last summer.

While day-to-day management of the company has remained unchanged, the substantial financial investment in Pennine has enabled us to begin an expansion plan to grow our turnover from £20 to £30m within the next four years.

This has prevented us reaching a plateau and is enabling us to create new jobs and opportunities, not just in here in Stirling but at our HQ in Bacup and our regional bases in Milton Keynes and Gloucester.

We have also been able to take our interests in the Gulf to a higher level by opening a new office in Dubai – within the Dutco Balfour Beatty offices – and appointing a new regional manager in Don Godenzie.

Same team, bigger capacity. Isn't it nice when a plan comes together?

Pennine Wins Lanarkshire Schools Contract

Pennine has won a £270,000 contract to prepare the way for five new schools as part of a ground-breaking schools redevelopment scheme in Lanarkshire.

The vibro piling contract is part of a wider Public Private Partnership (PPP) project by South Lanarkshire Council and the InspirED consortium, led by Amec.

The entire scheme will see £290m spent on building 17 new secondary schools and refurbishing two existing schools by 2009.

PPP arrangements allow for private firms to fund the work in the schools, with the local council paying them back over several decades.

Pennine has already picked up the contract to install 9,100 stone columns – 23,800 linear metres – at five of the six schools being built under phase one, with a decision on the sixth school expected imminently.

Work began in January and is scheduled to complete in March.

Housebuilders Hat-trick for Pennine

Housebuilders are queuing up for Pennine's ground engineering expertise at a new development in Scotland.

Taylor Woodrow, Robertson Homes and Stewart Milne have all enlisted the help of Pennine to prepare the ground for their new homes at the Exelsior Development in Motherwell.

The projects present a real hotchpotch of ground conditions, with ground varying widely from dense fill to alluvial clay with mudstone or sandstone bedrock.

There's also a capped culvert running underneath the site, and the made ground varies in depth from 1.5 metres in some places to 11 metres in others.

The Pennine team has been called back to the growing site several times since 2005 as housebuilders have recommended their work to other developers.

“It's always very gratifying to be called back to do more work at a particular location,” said Scottish area manager Gavin Savage. “There can be no better proof of client satisfaction.”

Pennine Presents Continuing Professional Development

Professionals seeking to know more about ground improvement techniques and their applications for different projects can now take part in a range of presentations and seminars organised by Pennine.

We now offer two independently accredited CPD presentations on Ground Improvement Techniques and Auger Displacement Piling.

To find out more or to book a presentation click here.

Introducing Claire Garrett

As part of our growing service to Scotland, geotechnical engineer Claire Garrett now spends part of every working week north of the border as estimator for Scotland and the North East.

Claire, who has worked for Pennine for more than two years, graduated from Manchester University with a first class honours degree in geography and geology.

She's based at our Bacup head office, but would be only too pleased to arrange a meeting with you. Contact her on 01706 877555 or at claire.garrett@pennine-group.co.uk.