BRMCA Awards 2013 recognises companies customer service

The British Ready-Mixed Concrete Association (BRMCA) Award for Excellence in Customer Service recognises and celebrates ready-mixed companies who provide a high-quality efficient and professional service.

The award was presented at this year’s Concrete Society Awards Dinner where Dr Chris Clear, BRMCA technical director, said: “The top winner and commended entries demonstrate the range of applications and provide a showcase for the technical expertise of the members and their commitment to delivering solutions to meet client needs.”

The Gold Medallist was 1343 Hanson Concrete for its exceptional delivery of a rail network project. When the contractor is working in the limited time available on the rail network service is particularly important. In this case, the requirement was to provide a high performance fibre reinforced concrete to an in-situ 32-hour tensile strength requirement, where the ambient air temperatures were down to -5ºC.

Working in partnership with expert contractor, Story Contracting, Hanson Concrete produced the innovative concrete mix design for this project. This concrete’s use was an industry first and a milestone in improved construction time. Additional health and safety benefits also resulted in reduced labour and manual handling due to the absence of mesh with greatly reduced trip hazards.

Chris Clear said: “Supplying at night, multiple locations and with a specialist concrete is always going to be a challenge.”

7235 Lafarge Tarmac’s project at Drax Power Station, Selby, County Yorkshire, northern England, was highly commended in the awards. The aim of the project was to convert the facility into a predominantly biomass-fuelled generator. For this, Lafarge Tarmac developed a concrete that could not only be sprayed to an invert, but was also fluid enough to be pumped to the full height of the dome (50m) and able to adhere to the dome wall. This was no easy task, but Lafarge Tarmac's technical team perfected a suitable mix first in the laboratory and then with trials on site.

Cemex UK Materials’ project at Arla Foods, Hatfield, County Hertfodshire, southern England, was also highly commended because of its high level of service in the supply of concrete for the placing and finishing of a large area floor. This is never easy but, in the case in the Arla Foods project, where the concrete supplied is delivered as required, with consistent workability, then the service is to be recognised. Cemex UK Materials was also praised by the contractor for a “‘spot on”’ service, after completion of the project.