Skills shortages, labour costs, clients with tough timeframes - they are all putting pressure on construction companies to complete jobs in the fastest possible. A classic example is the deal struck by West Midlands-based property development and investment company Opus Land with US hotel giant, Cendant Corporation. Opus is to support the development roll-out of the franchisor's Days Inn brand across the UK. That means site finding, planning, investment, development and letting deals at motorway sites, city centres, towns and business parks. Now for the tricky bit. Once planning is granted, Opus has a mere 30 weeks to build each Days Inn hotel according to a tightly controlled formula. Lee Syrett, head of franchise sales and development, Cendant Hotel Group Europe, has no worries that it can and will be done. "With their can-do attitude, the Opus team reflects the Days Inn philosophy," he explains. "The company's readiness to work anywhere in the country, coupled with its extensive market knowledge, was pivotal to our choice of partner to assist in our UK roll-out." Such demands are testing the ingenuity as well as the determination of construction firms on the West Midlands. Sometimes it takes a thoroughly modern approach - like the time when Focus Housing faced an urgent shortage of residential care homes for the elderly in the West Midlands. The answers - to build three new ones, using a mixture of prefabricated units alongside more conventional methods. Project manager Derek Mounsey, of Birmingham-based structural and civil engineering consultancy Scott Wilson Peel and Fowler, takes up the story. "The key issues for us were foundation design, drainage and traffic related. Foundations were designed to take account of reclaimed land on one site, we were also required to carry out major drainage diversions on two of the other sites," he says. Scott Wilson Peel and Fowler designed each building's superstructure and the pre-fabricated units were ultimately attached by a contractor. The superstructure includes communal areas, entrances, dining halls and utilities and a central circulation core around which the pre-fabricated living accommodation pods are built on. According to Mr Mounsey, the combination of traditional and pre-fabricated building techniques proved highly successful. "Focus Housing is very pleased with the completed buildings," he says. "There is a 12-month period after completion when the structure is monitored for potential faults, I'm pleased to say there have been no major problems." The pre-fabricated units, manufactured by Terrapin using cold-form steel, are supplied fully decorated with all the interior fittings and fixtures - only requiring a roof and outside cladding when they arrive on site. Another twist in the search for ever faster completion times is the use of cladding systems - described by Peter Lightfoot, joint MD at construction group Weaver, as a fast and effective means of completing the envelope. At the same time, they reduce the need for socalled wet trades, such as brick and block-work, and speed up the whole construction process. "Most frequently used are profiled or flat panel composite panels that can be seen on many industrial buildings," says Mr Weaver. "With these systems, careful consideration needs to be given to the interface between composite cladding and traditional masonry to ensure that the installation is not delayed while slower trades are constructed. With careful planning and co-ordination, these delays can be mitigated." The use of twin skin composite panels got a boost with the latest changes to building regulations relating to the energy performance and air tightness of the building envelope. Another area of cladding that has grown significantly in popularity over the last two years is the use of brick slip panels. They look like traditional bricks but eliminate the need for skilled tradesmen. "There are many less obvious advantages to these new cladding systems," enthuses Mr Lightfoot, as he reels off a list that includes lower haulage cost, reduced environmental impact, lower plant costs, less waste, and fewer dangerous substances on site. "The most obvious advantage is the saving of a most precious commodity - time," says Mr Lightfoot. "While it is fair to say that many of the skills we use today are certainly similar and, in some cases, the same as those employed by our predecessors, enormous advances have been achieved using alternative building methods." In Weaver's case, those advances start from the ground up. In fact, the company has built up considerable expertise in developing sites where the nature of the ground requires special treatment. "With powerful incentives to develop brownfield sites, this trend looks set to increase," says Mr Lightfoot. "Lime is often used to stabilise and modify soil and is now one of the preferred solutions for transforming unsuitable or marginal soils into usable construction material. "This is not a new invention - the addition of lime to clay soil for construction purposes is believed to have started over 5,000 years ago.' How does it work. Something like this - when lime is added to soft clay, organic soil and loose sand and silty soils, two reactions take place. Within a few days, clay soil becomes drier and therefore more easily trafficked and compacted by construction vehicles. The long-term reaction is stabilisation, whereby the lime-soil mixture significantly increases in strength. Mr Lightfoot says: "This process is particularly suited to larger sites - not least because of the size of equipment required and the set-up costs. "It effectively converts the land into a solid working platform, allowing plant and equipment to access large areas both quickly and efficiently to carry out the necessary excavation operations, particularly during winter, as the site is effectively capped-off." Major benefits of using lime include the elimination or reduction of costly imported fill, disposal and the associated land taxes reduced; fewer vehicle movements; improved site access and ease of construction; effects of inclement weather are greatly reduced; rapid establishment of all roads; providing a green solution that minimises environmental impact. | 
