A big THANK YOU to all those who attended the recent Federation of Piling Specialists (FPS) Dinner and Annual Awards, which were held 19th October 2018, at the Intercontinental London Park Lane Hotel. It was an excellent evening, with a tremendously inspirational speech given by the evening’s host Coaching Legend, Sir Clive Woodward OBE.

The evening celebrated all that is good about the piling sector, through the FPS Award’s presentation. Some 32 individual award entries were submitted with the judges, Pam Rigby (United Utilities), Chris Harnan (MD of Ceecom Consult Limited), and Rachel Monteith (Associate Director at Buro Happold UK) commenting on the extremely high standard of the entries. Sir Clive Woodward, together with our very own FPS Chair Phil Hines, presented the awards. The winners were:

• Dawson-WAM, who was awarded the Safety Innovation Award (sponsored by John Laurie Tubulars), for its Safelane Check Point

• Keller, who was awarded the Technology Award (sponsored by Casagrande UK), for its 3 into 2 Initiative

• Luke Morris, Balfour Beatty Ground Engineering, was awarded the Early Career Technician Award (sponsored by Dywidag-Systems International). Luke demonstrated a rapid rise to power and has displayed a wide range of skills

• Blake Murray, Balfour Beatty Ground Engineering, took the Early Career Professional Award (sponsored by Cementation Skanska). Blake displayed great evidence of team working; drive and taking on roles within his company to expand his skill set and develop further

• Mark Pennington, Balfour Beatty Ground Engineering, was awarded the prestigious FPS Chair’s Award (sponsored by Cleveland Steel and Tubes), in recognition of his contribution to the piling sector. Mark has worked over 20 years in ground engineering and has led the initiative to improve the FPS Rig Bearing Pressure spreadsheet, to improve industry piling platform safety performance. Mark has also been a driver behind the development of FPS BIM Guidance documents, to support members to develop their own digital management systems and was part of the team that set up the Crossrail Lessons Learned conference. Most importantly, he has chaired the FPS Technical Committee since 2011.
Well Done to all winners and all those who were shortlisted.

Of course, a big thank also goes to all those companies that supported the event through sponsorship, specifically, the Primary Sponsor – Cleveland Steel & Tubes Ltd; Category Sponsors – Cementation Skanska, DYWIDAG-Systems International, Casagrande UK and Associate Sponsors – Barker Ross Group, Weldex, Keltbray Piling and Roger Bullivant Ltd. The contribution of sponsors helped make the event the success it was.

To view the photographs from the evening visit – http://picti.net/uozzE