Over 350 delegates attend annual seminar in London

Over 350 NEC users from the UK and around the world attended the NEC Users’ Group annual seminar and awards ceremony in London last month.

The event on 17 June at the Institution of Civil Engineers headquarters in Westminster showcased major NEC-procured building and infrastructure projects in Australia, Hong Kong, Peru and the UK, as well as NEC’s growing role in digital transformation, facilities management and asset operations.

International speakers included Lam Sai-Hung of the Hong Kong Development Bureau, Albert Cheng of the Hong Kong Construction Industry Council and Dafydd Wyn Owen of consultancy HKA’s Sydney office. NEC is the default publicsector construction procurement route in Hong Kong and it is now finding favour in Australia.

NEC case studies

Nisha Desai and Frank Randles from Mace and Andrew Wilkinson from Arup explained how the NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) had ensured venues and infrastructure were delivered on time for this month’s Lima 2019 Panamerican and Parapan American Games, the world’s fourth biggest sporting event. The Peruvian government is now looking at using NEC to deliver major infrastructure projects.

Phillip Bennett, commercial director of Network Rail, discussed how the NEC4 Design Build and Operate Contract (DBO) is helping achieve a £1.8 billion digitalisation of the East Coast mainline, while Thames Tideway Tunnel deputy programme director Jackie Roe updated users on London’s NEC-procured £4.2 billion ‘super sewer’.

Ian Cowling of BAM Nuttall discussed NEC’s role in collaboration, Mark Enzer of Mott MacDonald covered digital transformation and Anne Kinder of Nodus and Ross Hayes introduced the new set of NEC facilities management contracts, now in development and being released soon.

The afternoon session included interactive workshops on the NEC4 Term Service Contract (TSC), NEC subcontracts and NEC’s proposed new digital platform. There was also an opportunity to meet and question some of the drafters of the NEC4 contract suite.

NEC Awards 2019

David Hancock, NEC Users’ Group chair and construction director at the UK’s Infrastructure Project Authority, then presented the 2019 NEC Awards.

The NEC Contract of the Year was a £38 million highways project for Perth & Kinross Council in Scotland. Following a 9 month early contractor involvement stage and full use of NEC risk-management processes, Balfour Beatty successfully delivered the Perth Transport Futures Project phase 1 – A9/A85 to Bertha Park scheme in February this year under an NEC3 ECC Option A (priced contract with activity schedule).

NEC Client of the Year was the Hong Kong Drainage Services Department, which has awarded 66 NEC3 contracts over the past 10 years using a wide range of forms and options. It is now piloting the NEC4 Professional Services Contract.

NEC Contractor of the Year was a joint venture of China Road and Bridge Corporation and Build King, also in Hong Kong, for their exemplary collaboration during construction of the HK$2.4 billion (£240 million) Road P2 in Tseung Kwan O.

Finally the NEC Contract Innovation of the Year Award went to HS2 and Arup+ for good use of key performance indicators and incentives to encourage innovative civil engineering design on lot 3 of phase 2.

Fairer payments

The seminar concluded with a presentation from UK member of parliament Debbie Abrahams, who explained how NEC and project bank accounts can help to ensure prompt and fair payments to smaller members of the supply chain.

The event was sponsored by Cemar, Build. IT, Built Environment Communications Group (BECG), Turner & Townsend and Sypro.