We welcomed the #GreatOrmondStreetHospital Young People’s Forum to site to see our project progress. After a tour and lots of challenging questions, they, thankfully, gave us a good report. Looking forward to seeing them again when we complete our works this year. #Buildingwhatmatters
Experts working on Highways England’s £1.5bn upgrade of the A14 in Cambridgeshire have uncovered what is believed to be evidence of the first beer brewed in the UK.
Deep below the surface of Britain’s biggest road scheme something has been brewing… for a very long time – more than 2,000 years in fact. The tell-tale signs of the Iron Age brew, potentially from as far back as 400 BC, were uncovered in tiny fragments of charred residues from the beer making process from earth excavated with other archaeological finds. This picture shows archaeobotanist Lara Gonzalez examining the evidence under a microscope.
Further finds show the locals also had a taste for porridge and bread as well as beer. The discoveries are the latest on the road project where previous finds include woolly mammoths, abandoned villages, and burials.
A team of up to 250 archaeologists led by experts from MOLA Headland Infrastructure has been working on the 21-mile road project, investigating 33 sites across 360 hectares.
Skanska, in a joint venture with Costain, Balfour Beatty and Carillion, is delivering the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme for Highways England.
In the first of series of posts, David Mason, Skanska UK’s Environment Technical Director looks at how the construction industry can cut carbon emissions:
“It’s the biggest environmental challenge the industry faces.
“The sector is carbon intensive: it produces a significant amount of emissions. This starts with creation of the materials used, includes the construction process and use of the end product and goes on to decommissioning. Poor design or construction decisions can increase emissions for long periods of time.
“Estimates on the amount of emissions from the built environment vary. But they all agree on one thing: it’s a lot. One estimate puts the figure at 39 per cent of all global emissions. It’s a massive issue and the only way to meet global climate targets is to cut carbon emissions.
“Cracking this problem requires the construction industry to adopt a more comprehensive and sophisticated approach than ever before.
“But there are things we can do. Skanska is at forefront of reducing carbon in construction projects and we have huge experience doing that. Our Journey to Deep Green™ demonstrates our environmental leadership.
“Next time: cement, concrete and carbon emissions.”
Sharing some love on #Valentine's from Stockholm New – a new landmark we are developing and building that will transform an industrial area into a new hub for creative companies. From Skanska, with love ❤️
A warming Arctic means adjusting how and where to build, leading to this replacement of 60 homes on Svalbard. “It is very good to get a permanent home again, a house that is safe,” says Nils Lorentsen, whose previous home was damaged by a 2017 avalanche. Read the full story:
In the facade of our Spark office development in Warsaw, Poland, we’re testing a transformational new type of solar cell that could make all buildings energy self-sufficient. Learn about how 36-year-old Polish physicist Olga Malinkiewicz developed these perovskite-based cells – which work on surfaces with little sunlight – and the global impact they may have in this story from Agence France-Presse:
