Balfour Beatty, the UK’s largest construction firm, has announced that it aims to use offsite and modular building techniques to slash onsite work by a quarter over the next six years.
The contractor commented that this would support the UK government’s 2025 strategy for lower cost, lower emission and faster delivery, and also improve safety and create new skills.Â
In the paper, titled 25% by 2025: Streamlined Construction, the company also outlined ways the government could help drive change, and called for the industry to share best practice and learn from the manufacturing sector.
Leo Quinn, Balfour Beatty’s chief executive, said: "On a national level, industrialised construction would lead to the creation of thousands of jobs across the country over the next few years – if we invest now.Â
"For everyone in construction to reap the rewards of industrialised construction the industry must increase the pace of change while the public sector and other infrastructure commissioners need to fund schemes that utilise industrialised techniques."Â
Earlier this year Balfour Beatty said it would use offsite construction to build a $331m Hong Kong tunnel contract, and last year predicted that the building process would be largely carried out by smart machines by 2050.
Read the Balfour Beatty paper here.
Image courtesy of Balfour Beatty
