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CONSTRUCTION, THE BACKROOM BOYS (AND GIRLS).

04 Jul 17

By John Bromfield

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CONSTRUCTION, THE BACKROOM BOYS (AND GIRLS).

During construction activities, most laymen and most of the public see only mess, mud, dust, a new structure and posts from the politicians lauding “their” latest scheme, project or just politicking as to how much “they” are doing for the (voting) public. Everyone hears the noise and sees the extra traffic, notices the many disruptions and are, generally, put-out and disrupted by the additional activities around them.

However, apart from industry Professional builders, Architects and Town Planners etc., who thinks about the “back-room boys and girls” that start the job, help to organise, plan and build the job and keep the public safe and the traffic moving and minimize noise and disruption?

We will raise some of these issues in this article which we hope will bring some credence and publicity to the workers who keep the projects on target for time, quality and financial constraints.

CUSTOMS AND EXCISE, IMPORTS AND TAX COLLECTION.

Gibraltar is outside The Customs Union of The EU and, as such, levies Customs Duty on all construction imports. All of these arrive by road, sea and air and have to be documented, policed and tax collected at source for Government coffers and the ultimate benefit of the taxpayers, you and I.

Before we see the lorries, the container ships and the aircraft, Customs and Excise have to handle the mass of extra documentation and traffic activity, by whatever mode of transport the goods arrive. It all comes via our Frontier Controls. Thank you all for all your hard work in Customs.

TOWN PLANNING

A soul-destroying job that is handled very well with one very important constraint that we and they are unable to change, ever. Gibraltar is only a few square miles in area and is constrained by a densely populated city-scape and extreme services, underground tanks, tunnels, bridges, retaining walls, power, water and sewerage schemes that would be the envy of a small city in the U.K. of a much larger size and complexity.

Their work-loads have increased many-fold because there are not only major schemes to examine, consult on and decide, but a massive number of small private projects carried out by the general public to improve their homes. All have to have the same considerations when applying The Law and Planning Department constraints, protocols and Government advice.

Well done you guys and gals.

HIGHWAYS, PAVEMENTS AND TRAFFIC

Gibraltar’s road and pavement system has come under massive adverse loads over the past twenty years of major and minor works at every location in The City. The Highways Department have to contend with access over delicate and load-constrained roads, bridges and retaining walls for activities that were never designed for the current and foreseeable projects. We never see the personnel who plan, arrange police escorts and organize road diversions for the extra heavy, wide or long loads that most of the public never see if the arrangements are at night. Pavement construction is weaker that road construction and, unfortunately, pavements become damaged as wide loads and heavy loads fail to keep to the roads proper. It is the highways personnel who have to manage and oversee damage control, temporary traffic controls and safety for the public and protection of our expensive and valuable infra structure. Thanks to all of them for their efforts.

BUILDING CONTROL

Most contractors and most of the uninformed public, generally, get frustrated with this department’s tasks and consider it “interference” in the job. Not so, and why?

If your children, your parents or you come under threat of falling masonry, dangerous structures or services that could explode at any time, then the work of the Building Control Office and their hard-working personnel is to enforce the provision of the protection that we all want and demand. They are powerful enough to stop bad, dangerous or non-designed variations from the approved schemes.

Their constant vigilance is our comfort zone. Long may they prosper and protect us.

DESIGN

Providing not only, “a smart and good looking, innovative shiny” building but also the detailed drawings to give builders, civil engineers and mechanical contractors, the guidelines for a safe build, safe installation and safe operation of today’s complex structures, machinery and even the loos!

Most of us imagine the “Architecture” and “Engineering” to be the concept drawing or the publicity literature surround the latest high quality block of flats. The devil, however, is most definitely in the detail. Without these details, building and civil engineering contractors, their sub-contractors and their suppliers cannot put the structure up in a safe, best value and speedy time-frame.

To all the hard-working, back-room persons handling this work under the most appalling pressure by Government, contractors, sub-contractors and manufacturers, we pass on our gratitude.

My apologies for missing out anyone due to publication constraints. Who else? Many, varied and hard-working people all helping to get our infrastructure up to modern day standards, keeping the infrastructure cost low for the quality required, maintaining our safety, health and good environment considering all the difficulties and constraints. Thank you all for your efforts regardless of how much your efforts are carried out behind the scenes of all the glamour of the contractor’s name and the Government’s spin machine publicity.

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