Feedback from two different events proved that integrated teams, collaboration with enlightened clients and a focus on the end product delivers great results.

Two different projects were showcased at CEW workshops recently, but both emphasised that collaboration and more specifically working as an integrated team helps to guarantee value from a project no matter if it is a major trunk road or a school.

How do integrated construction teams add value right from the start of a project? This was answered by the Welsh Government’s Transport Division and their partners as they explained to CEW delegates the story behind the A477 St. Clears to Red Roses Improvement.

It was completed in 2014, under an ECI form of procurement and has been operational for over 18 months and finished within time and budget, accommodating an environmentally sensitive site with the full support of the local community. The integrated team successfully brought the project through the statutory process, detailed design and construction stages.

Their approach was much the same to that behind the success of Ysgol Gymraeg Nant Talwg. Once again, the workshop heard about the value of maintaining an integrated team throughout the delivery of a number of projects to continually refine and improve the final product. Ysgol Gymraeg Nant Talwg is a cost-effective primary school for 210 pupils and a nursery based on a template design derived from previous projects and refined over a number of years. The “Agilis” model school, jointly developed by the contractor and architect, features an efficiency of design, a lean building process, speedy construction and cost effectiveness compared to a more traditional bespoke option. It offers flexibility through removable internal walls and the ability for the client to customise the external appearance as well as the internal positioning of certain elements such as toilet blocks.