The shortlist for the 2006 better public building award features three bridge schemes, a flood-alleviation project and a widening works to the M25, among the 14 contenders.
The shortlist for the awards, backed by prime minister Tony Blair, which are designed to raise the standard of design quality and procurement everywhere – ‘not just in high-profile projects in the big cities’ – were selected from 137 entries.
Among those picked was the Westminster council-led £63M Paddington Bridge upgrade – the largest London borough project in recent years – which involved introducing a wider, higher bridge over 14 railway lines.
Traditional foundations had to be eschewed in favour of reinforced earth embankments, to reduce the load on the Bakerloo Tube line running only 15m below part of the structure.
The £147M widening of the M25 between junction 12 and 15 was chosen because of its safety record and being delivered ahead of schedule.
One million man hours passed without accident on the Highways Agency scheme, while the value of partnering showed when an early setback meant the job ran nine weeks behind schedule but was delivered three weeks early, and to a fixed price.
A bridge replacing a decaying concrete crossing for the A92 over the South Esk River in Montrose was shortlisted because judges were impressed by both the way it was delivered – with steelwork fabricated in a Belfast shipyard brought to the site by crane barge – and the structure’s ‘elegance’.
The £7.2M Angus Council scheme involved a three-span concrete and steel bridge with a distinctive cope and pronounced curvature.
The Broads River system in the east of England was selected because of its effective and sensitive approach. The £3.8M scheme has 240 kilometres of earth and sheet-piled flood defences, with an average residual life of between five and 10 years.
The three-year project is part of a 20-year flood-alleviation scheme from the Environment Agency.
The roads schemes are competing with a treetop walkway, the Welsh national assembly building, and a children’s hospital, among other shortlisted projects for the prize, due to be announced at a ceremony in London on 26 October.