We’re Celebrating 10,000 Followers on LinkedIn!
We’re proud to say that our LinkedIn profile has hit an astounding 10,000 followers! We see this milestone as a real testament to the growth of our business, and want to give a huge thank you to those who support us through this platform! As a way of celebrating this achievement, we wanted to take a trip back through time to look at some of the stories from us over the years.
We’ve taken a story/event from our company’s history that took place around each 1000 follower milestone, leading all the way to where we are today. We want to turn this accomplishment into something more – something that celebrates who we are and what we do – and there seems no better way than to use this opportunity as an excuse to pump the brakes for a second and reflect.
1000 Followers – March 2019
In March 2019, we commenced groundworks on the Aflex Hose manufacturing facility in Huddersfield, a 17,000 square metre facility that additionally acted as an office building. By 2028, the factory expects to employ 500 people, and the building itself increased Aflex Hose’s production by a whopping 70%! This £2.3m contract, awarded by GMI Construction, involved us – among other things – laying 2000m3 in foundations, 2,800m of surface water drainage, and 7,500m2 of mesh reinforced external slabs!
The works were completed the following year, and we’re proud knowing the work we did here will aid in creating so many jobs – a running theme among much of the work we do.
2000 Followers – October 2019
In October 2019 we hit 2000 followers, and it was certainly a month to celebrate: we officially reported the news that, the month prior, we had achieved the highest ever health and safety report across all of our live sites at the time! The milestone was ‘a result of investing in new staff, new innovative equipment, and consultations with site managers on how we can improve health and safety company-wide’.
Nearly four years later, this mantra has certainly not faltered. In 2022, our average health and safety score was 90.75%, continuing to deliver our monthly target of above 90%. We pride ourselves on excellent health and safety standards across all of our sites, and will stop at nothing to ensure all of our workforce are in the best possible hands at all times!
3000 Followers – January 2020
In early 2020, we lent our support to Team Echo of the Skipton Girls’ High School, a group of six young women vying for victory in the national 4×4 Land Rover In Schools Competition. The competition raised awareness to the practical applications of STEM, helping to inspire the next generation through some friendly competition.
We donated £300 to help with expenses accrued throughout the two-day competition in Coventry, and we were delighted to see Team Echo come second place in the Development Class at the Regional Finals – an achievement that saw them progress to the national finals! Supporting the next generation in STEM, and giving them the chance to thrive in opportunities that may prove to be a career for life, is something we’ll continue to push for in our local communities!
4000 Followers – May 2020
In May 2020, we spent some time highlighting the importance of kindness to celebrate Mental Health Awareness week. At the time, COVID-19 was causing chaos across the globe, so emphasising mental health and the impact of being a friendly face to those around you was a top priority for us (and of course still is). During the week, we conducted Tool Box Talks across all of our live sites to discuss mental health, and were able to dedicate over 40 hours across the year prior to helping those on the team in need of mental health support!
Pandemic or no pandemic, mental health is key to everyone’s well being. We continue to engage in events like Tool Box Talks across our sites to make sure everyone is able to feel open and honest about their feelings, and always has someone to reach out to no matter what. We’re also home to several mental health first aiders at our head office in Leeds, consisting of staff members who have trained and now lend their support to anyone who might need it!
5000 Followers – September 2020
A lot happened in September 2020, including crossing the half-way follower mark to where we are today! Also during this month was our focus on reducing our carbon footprint amidst National Recycling week. We’ve always made it a high priority to help the environment wherever and whenever we can – an ideology that remains stronger than ever nearly three years later.
The month prior, members of our team built some brand new playground equipment for Crossflatts Primary School in Bradford, an effort that was not only some great service to the community, but additionally was environmentally friendly through the use of used materials from our sites. In addition to this, the team also constructed a wendy home, a wildlife hotel, and a mud pit for the kids to enjoy upon their return to school!
6000 Followers – April 2021
In April of 2020, we supported our long-term partner The Howarth Foundation with their launch of Hidden Owls, a community project in Leeds aimed at selling preloved and new items, offering a reintegration project for those recovering from chaotic lifestyles in the form of the ‘Street2Feet Project’, as well as being a training centre and head office for organisation itself!
Howard Civil Engineering helped in the refurbishment of the training facility through providing guidance and advice in the early stages of renovation, as well as engaging some of our preferred local subcontractors and suppliers to cover pipework, undertake remedial work to the floors, and provide floor coverings across the units.
The staff at the building are recruited from those who have come from a wide variety of backgrounds; homeless, sofa surfers, those fleeing domestic violence, and more. Providing welfare and jobs to those enduring such hard times is what The Howarth Foundation does best, and we’re proud to continue supporting them as partners.
7000 Followers – December 2021
In December 2021, we kick-started our #12DaysOfHCE campaign for the first time, documenting our twelve donations to twelve causes throughout the month to help our local communities throughout the festive period. We donated £5,000 to the various causes, the likes of which included (but were not limited to) the St John’s Community Church in Greengates, the Bradford Food Bank, and the LS14 Trust!
The #12DaysOfHCE has become a staple of our festive celebrations – a tradition that we have continued ever since! The festive period can be a tough one for many, so we hope our efforts each year make the time that little bit easier for people.
8000 Followers – July 2022
In July 2022, we made a huge investment in upgrading and enhancing our fleet at Howard Plant Hire! The multi-million pound investment was a result of several new contract awards, allowing us to make purchases that included six new Kobelco 13-tonne excavators, as well as 11 Doosan excavators that ranged from 5 to 14 tonnes.
Upgrades like this are a real showcase of our continued growth and expansion as a business. It allows us to undertake more, output more, and achieve more, as well as helping us maintain the high standards we set for ourselves. They also release significantly fewer carbon emissions than older models, without compromising on performance!
9000 Followers – January 2023
We got 2023 off to a great start; not only did we arrive at 9000 followers on our LinkedIn, but we were also incredibly proud to achieve an ‘Excellent’ score of 43/45 on our first ever Considerate Constructors Scheme audit as a registered organisation! Our sustainability manager Sophie Henderson mentioned this was due to our enjoyment of ‘delivering social value to our local community’, in addition to providing financial donations, work placements, volunteering and career advice!
Our constant efforts to better everyone around us as part of our business endeavours is something we pride ourselves on every day. It’s deeply ingrained in our practices, and the many stories listed above only support that.
To Wrap Up
To those who support our online presence on LinkedIn (and even Twitter… or is it X now?), we want to extend our thanks and gratitude. It’s a vital form of communication for us that connects all of you with everything we do as a business, and using it has proven crucial – especially with regards to our CSR and sustainability activities, like helping to fundraise thousands of pounds for charities every year!
At Howard Civil Engineering, there’s never a day that goes by where we don’t push ourselves to make an impact; whether that be on our staff at our head office, on our on-site workforce, or on the local communities that surround our many sites across the north of England. We ensure that everything we deliver is to the best of our ability, and that’s something that has never changed – nor will it ever!
We have recently donated timber posts to two local community groups within South Tyneside, near to our A183 scheme! Supporting the communities in which we work as we perform our jobs is an important part of our business – giving back and showing our gratitude to those surrounding us reaffirms our commitment to creating a positive impact wherever our business takes us!
50 posts were donated to a local beekeeper to form hives with. The owner does a huge amount in the local community, running free classes for both children and adults alike on beekeeping (participants can even don beekeeping suits to get a real feel for the work). We hope that, with our donation, these free classes – as well as the importance of beekeeping – can keep going!
The South Tyneside District Scouts were the second group to get a donation, receiving 75 posts. Supporting the local scouts community with resources to help both young people and adults in their activities was a great cause for us to support, benefiting a wide range of people in addition to upholding our community commitments!
Both donations came with the added support of two of our employees to aid in the banding, loading and unloading, in addition to machinery to support these processes including an 8t machine and a tipper!
You may be asking yourself ‘why posts?’. The timber posts we donated were sourced directly from our A183 site in South Tyneside, taken from the perimeter fencing and repurposed for the above to continue serving the local community after their initial use had come to an end! Gifting the posts to local groups in need not only builds and maintains relationships with the local community, but helps to reduce landfill emissions. One tonne of rotting wood in landfill produces a quantity of methane which is as harmful as 600kg of CO2, emphasising how important it is to reuse as much as we can!
The groups we have donated to no longer need to buy from new, reducing costs for them and wasting far less energy. Overall, it takes less energy to prepare wood for re-use than it does acquiring from standard forestry sources. After two days of banding, loading, delivery and offloading, we fully expect both groups to make excellent use of the donations! Knowing that this is helping make an environmental difference through reducing the damaging contributions to landfill and its harmful effects makes us feel great, and we hope everyone involved feels this too!
This September, we’ll be participating in the 15K Tough Mudder: a 15km obstacle course aimed at truly testing your mettle! Our reasoning for undertaking such a feat is to raise funds for an incredibly important charity, Candlelighters.
Candlelighters is a charity with one clear vision: bringing light and hope to all families affected by childhood cancer in Yorkshire. They help countless families through these unimaginable circumstances, providing as much help as possible through emotional, practical, and financial support, as well as investing funds in crucial research to improve the outcomes and lives of children facing cancer. More than anything though, they give people hope.
This charity is especially close to us, as one of our staff has had firsthand experience with their services. Ben Heywood, one of our plant yard staff, has had to endure the unthinkable scenario of having a child with cancer. Grayson, his son, was unfortunately diagnosed at eight months old. Since then he has had his tumour removed, and is now in remission but still in need of support. Grayson still has an NG tube, and struggles to eat and drink, though right now he’s receiving both food evasion therapy in addition to speech and language therapy to help with these.
Whilst in hospital on one of his many visits, Grayson used the playrooms there – the equipment from which was provided by Candlelighters. The charity also visits children and families on the wards; providing practical support to those staying there or visiting the clinic, helping to direct families to the right place to make their visit as stress-free as possible, entertaining children so their parents can get some much-deserved respite, and anything else that might make families lives that much easier.
They also fund the roles of key people that work on the wards; social workers, play leaders, dinner ladies etc, all to provide some extra support to families, as well as the NHS staff at the hospitals themselves. As you could imagine, having a child with cancer means spending significantly more time in hospitals, and the Candlelighters do everything they can to make that environment feel a bit less daunting through the funding of decorations, activities, and home comforts for the children.
There’s also the added stress of needing time out of work to care for a child dealing with cancer, often leading to financial concerns. Candlelighters offer grants to families to help them cover costs and ease their minds. Additionally, the charity works to provide children and their families with holidays and days out, another important way of taking time away from the day-to-day burden of cancer.
Ben has praised Candlelighters for the amazing support they were able to provide him and Grayson, and is one of the many reasons we’re choosing to support them through our participation in the Tough Mudder in September. To learn more about this life changing charity, visit their website here.
And don’t forget to check out our fundraiser! Click here to visit our GoFundMe, and consider donating if you can!
Our earthworks at Gateway 36 in Barnsley, formerly Rockingham Colliery, continue to make great progress as we undertake the second phase of the surcharging and ground treatment strategy. This strategy was designed by the RSK Group, an engineering and environmental consultancy working with the project client, the Harworth Group.
Previously, in the first phase of surcharging, we excavated a borrow pit and used the surplus landscaping material, to form the first surcharge mound. This first mound was 170,000m3 (with an estimated 90,000m3 coming from the borrow pit) and was placed on units 6 and 7. This surcharge stayed in place from December 2022 through till May 2023, when the Geotechnical Engineer had fully assessed that the settlement had ceased. Beneath the footprint and load of the surcharge, the settlement was between 200-400mm.
The second phase of the strategy officially commenced in May. The first works that began involved backfilling and reengineering the borrow pit (the other half of the development plateau). The engineered fill is required to be benched back in, and compacted to a high specification to ensure that the development plateau is structurally sound and viable for use. Following the completion of the borrow pit reinstatement, we will then proceed with installing the monitoring infrastructure, followed by moving the remaining surcharge material onto the borrow pit area – the other half of the development plateau, which is also to be surcharged.
There will be insufficient material to form the 2nd surcharge mound from just the surplus material alone, meaning we will need to borrow pit again from the area previously successfully surcharged. Overall, the surcharge/load required in this phase is 160,000m3, with approximately 80,000m3 coming from the new borrow pit. Following the formation of the second surcharge, it’ll be left to induce settlement, though the length of this period cannot be determined. Expectations dictate this period being at minimum three months, with the more likely estimate ranging to six.
Another important point of note is that, for the second phase of works, we have been instructed to undertake the topsoiling and initial landscaping works to 75% of the batters of the various development plateaus. This will see us place in the region of 20,000m3 of topsoil.
Looking ahead to the future of the scheme, the third phase will begin next year. Following the completion of the 2nd settlement period, we will reengineer the material back into the borrow pit, and leave the surplus material in place in a sealed stockpile. As of right now the surplus material’s end use is not defined, but is likely to go into landscaping bunds around the development.
For an in-depth case study of the works taking, visit the case study on our website here.
We recently invited some of the students at Sea View Primary School to visit our A183 Coast Road site and learn more about the world of construction! Not only was this a great introduction to a possible career choice for some of the children, but also delved into valuable life skills such as communication and problem-solving by giving them a fun team-building challenge to undertake!
Over a two-day period, we had over fifty year 5 pupils come and take a look at the project underway to realign a segment of the A183 Coast Road – works that will help protect it from coastal erosion. Project manager Patrick Furlong inducted the children upon their arrival, telling them about his role and responsibilities, in addition to teaching them the various health and safety rules that come from being on an active construction site.
On the days of their visits, the groups of pupils were split into two groups; one was taken onsite to learn about the project, its scope, and got to see the machines in action. The other group was given an exciting team-building exercise involving building the tallest, strongest tower using limited resources! Both groups got to experience each activity, giving them a superb insight into construction in a real-world environment, as well as getting to put the skills needed for the job to the test!
It was a real pleasure to accommodate the children of Sea View Primary, and we wish them the very best for their futures – and who knows, perhaps we’ll even be working with some of them one day!
To read more about the A183 Coast Road project, visit the case studies section of our website here.
Last Sunday, we took part in the 2023 Dragon Boat Race in Roundhay Park! The event, organized by the Martin House Children Hospice themselves, was done to help raise money for the incredible work they do to help countless families. A worthy cause to fight for as we paddled to a very respectable fourth place out of forty different teams also competing!
The day was packed to the brim with team spirit, and our enthusiastic group of rowers was certainly ready to push themselves in the name of fundraising (and having some fun of course). Our team also took part in the Tug of War event, coming in second place! It certainly can’t be said that the Howard group aren’t fighters!
We set a fundraising target of £1500, and we want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who was generous enough to donate. In total, we smashed our goal – beating it by over £500! Fundraising, sustainability and CSR are areas we have always prided ourselves on, and we stand by the belief that they are vital to what we do as we continue to prioritize giving back to those around us.
Martin Houses’ work is crucial in supporting children and young people that suffer from life-limiting conditions, in addition to helping their families through the entire ordeal. They provide the necessary care that allows everyone involved to live as well and fully as possible, offer the best possible end of life treatment available, and aid bereaved families through unimaginable circumstances. All of this showcases just how important the work of Martin House is to communities across the country, and emphasizes why charitable donations are so necessary to keep their services operating. It also is exactly why we wanted to stand behind them for this charity fundraiser and do our part.
By going out of our way to raise funds like this, we not only get to experience the excitement of pushing ourselves to the limit, but do so knowing that it’s all in service of such a powerful cause. This satisfaction also extends to everyone who supports and considers donating to our fundraiser, helping us change lives for the better – even where all hope for some may seem lost.
Depending on when you’re reading this, there may still be time to donate towards our fundraiser! To check, visit our JustGiving page here.
And to learn more about the incredible work Martin House does, visit their website here.
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