Principal contractor for the University’s Old Road Campus Project – Mace – has commended the joined-up approach adopted by client the University of Oxford and all construction partners involved. A hallmark of the Old Road Campus Project (ORC) was the highly successful collaborative working model involving Mace, the University of Oxford and the various tier-one construction partners engaged in the work. Two of the ORC building projects that utilised the compliance requirements set out by the Considerate Constructors Scheme are: The Innovation Building involved the construction of research space for a pharmaceutical company and the BioEscalator based at the heart of the medical research campus adjacent to the Churchill Hospital, Old Road Campus, Oxford. This project follows Mace’s completion of the nearby Big Data Institute, with the team using the established site for this new project. The Big Data Institute opened in 2016 and is a purpose-built, state-of-the-art facility located in Headington, Oxford. Health, safety and site review forum, and best practice sharing Health, safety and site review meetings were regularly staged throughout the project to enable representatives from the various organisations and the University Capital Projects department to discuss all aspects of the work. Commenting on the meetings, Capital Projects Programme

The A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme is a £1.5 billion roadworks project including a major new bypass and upgrades to 21 miles of the A14. With over 250,000 artefacts found, it is one of the largest and most complex archaeological projects in the UK. Just before the main work began in November 2016, a team of 250 archaeologists from the UK and Europe were called in to investigate over 40 sites spanning 350 hectares. Archaeological work was initially started with geophysical surveys in 2010 when the roadworks were first being considered. The surveys identified some of the possible findings and created a proposal for excavation areas. Working together MOLA Headland archaeologists worked as a joint venture with the Highways England team to ensure the excavations were carried out with minimal disruptions, were executed safely and efficiently. Both teams believed it to be highly important to learn about and preserve thousands of years of history that lay beneath the future roads. What was found? Once the team had completed the excavations, the findings included: Woolly mammoth tusks and woolly rhino skulls, potentially dating back to over 100,000 years ago Three Neolithic henges, between four and five thousand years old, and