Well, we used to....Brunel springs to mind, not to mention various Cathedrals around the land. We appear to be going backwards. Don't know what Brunel would have made of the HS2 carry on. Admittedly he didn't have to worry about disturbing wildlife, housing etc at the time, but the expression "Couldn't organise a p*** up in a brewery" is how l feel about the current lot.
I suspect it's a case of too much mediocrity in planning and finance departments across the country in both local and national government and the perils of long term financing for private companies.
Evan Davis has recently had a series on BBC - Built in Britain - about investing in infrastructure and major engineering projects. The Victorians did it and it's been interesting seeing how things are done more recently, what has worked, what didn't and the economic arguments for building new roads, railways, bridges etc. Catch it on i-Player if you can.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Every time they announce a new infrastructure project as "creating 3000 new jobs" I wonder how many of those jobs are actually people who are getting the job done. On every new road project there are 5 people in hi-vis and hard hats standing around holding a clip boards and watching one guy in a bulldozer eat his breakfast.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
@Obelixx - floors! or lack of them!! Unfortunately for the company concerned, they sent me 'Satisfaction Survey'. Needless to say they did not give me enough characters in the box which asked me to detail my problems! Probably just wasted 10 mins of my time filling it in.
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
One of the problems with big projects is that they keep changing the spec so everything has to be paused while the contractors work out how to include the new requirements and come up with new costings. It's certainly the case with IT projects and I suspect it's like that across the board.
Why can't we do major projects? Probably a rhetorical question.
Dove's right, really. The rules that are applied to public procurement in terms of getting x number of bidders and then requiring them to fill in endless and extremely repetitive forms in order to prove they have carried out 'due diligence' (a phrase the value of which has recently been pointed out) means that only firms with the manpower available to have someone who's sole job it is to fill in forms can apply. The focus is always on accountability - which is perfectly understandable, in theory - but which means that the selection and tendering processes are tied up in red tape and there is no intelligence applied. Hence no one says, "'ere, 'ang on a tick - you have filled in all these forms correctly but you don't actually have a boat to ship the stuff in, do you?" The fact that the forms are complete is deemed adequate proof.
Pick any government procurement TLA and you'll find it has been extremely inefficient, with construction firms spending actual millions of pounds trying to win a contract. You can't then be all that surprised when those construction firms over charge in any way they can for the work - it pays for all the money they spent not winning a dozen other contracts. Only monster companies like Capita and (ex) Carillion can afford to even apply for the jobs and they are so used to working the system, they run rings round the civil servants, none of whom have any background in construction.
Private developers don't work this way. They spend more time on references, reputation and relationships and less on forms, because they don't have to stand in front of a Parliamentary audit committee if it goes wrong. Therefore they procure work far more cheaply and achieve far better outcomes from (often) smaller firms who are working hard to get repeat business from a good client.
All County Councils used to have an Architects' department responsible for design and procurement and for contract administration in their bailiwick. They knew the local contractors, building control officers, how construction works, how construction law works and how to respond to the problems and unforeseens that every single construction project I've ever worked on (and there have been many) encounters along the way. Some really fantastic buildings were built by County Architects - schools especially, but also nursing homes and bridges and the day to day infrastructure we all rely on.
I may be wrong, but I don't think Brunel was employed by Network Rail. The Great Western Railway was a private enterprise, wasn't it?
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
All EU government are probably the same , I was in Hamburg on holiday last year and there are a number of contracts way over budget and behind schedule Lincolnshire County Council and Highways England are building a by pass around Lincoln , so far 2 contractors involved in doing the work have gone bust , great Due Dilligance
Posts
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Evan Davis has recently had a series on BBC - Built in Britain - about investing in infrastructure and major engineering projects. The Victorians did it and it's been interesting seeing how things are done more recently, what has worked, what didn't and the economic arguments for building new roads, railways, bridges etc. Catch it on i-Player if you can.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Pick any government procurement TLA and you'll find it has been extremely inefficient, with construction firms spending actual millions of pounds trying to win a contract. You can't then be all that surprised when those construction firms over charge in any way they can for the work - it pays for all the money they spent not winning a dozen other contracts. Only monster companies like Capita and (ex) Carillion can afford to even apply for the jobs and they are so used to working the system, they run rings round the civil servants, none of whom have any background in construction.
Private developers don't work this way. They spend more time on references, reputation and relationships and less on forms, because they don't have to stand in front of a Parliamentary audit committee if it goes wrong. Therefore they procure work far more cheaply and achieve far better outcomes from (often) smaller firms who are working hard to get repeat business from a good client.
All County Councils used to have an Architects' department responsible for design and procurement and for contract administration in their bailiwick. They knew the local contractors, building control officers, how construction works, how construction law works and how to respond to the problems and unforeseens that every single construction project I've ever worked on (and there have been many) encounters along the way. Some really fantastic buildings were built by County Architects - schools especially, but also nursing homes and bridges and the day to day infrastructure we all rely on.
I may be wrong, but I don't think Brunel was employed by Network Rail. The Great Western Railway was a private enterprise, wasn't it?
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Lincolnshire County Council and Highways England are building a by pass around Lincoln , so far 2 contractors involved in doing the work have gone bust , great Due Dilligance