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Balfour Beatty’s Roger Frost named CMYA 2011 overall winner

Roger Frost, Project Director at Balfour Beatty, was announced as the CIOB’s Construction Manager of the Year 2011, for his stirling work on the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham- the 2nd largest PFI health building in the country.

He received his overall award from TV presenter Claudia Winkleman, at last night’s CMYA awards at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, being selected from the 12 gold medal sector winners, as winner of the PFI sector.

In a rare event, two golds were awarded in the ‘New Build/ Refurbishment over £60M’ category, when the judges couldn’t decide between Lend Lease’s Philip Clarke for his work on the One New Change retail/ commercial development in London’s City, and Nick Mann of Kier’s role in building the Sainsbury research laboratories at Cambridge.

The £600M, 137,000sq.m Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which opened at the end of last year, is Birmingham’s first new hospital for over 70 years and boasts a 100-bed critical care unit- the largest in Europe, as well as the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, specialising in the treatment of military casualties.

Frost, who was worked on health sector projects for the last 15 years- the last 7 of which were spent building the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, declared himself surprised by the result. ‘It’s fabulous- I didn’t think I’d win at all,’ he said talking to Construction Manager at the event. ‘As you see here, the industry is full of good people who put a huge amount of effort into what they do, and I’d never be so arrogant to assume that I would win it.’

Frost, who is now Director and General Manager of Balfour Beatty’s Midlands Division said that he remained emotionally attached to the QEH. ‘The nice thing about building hospitals is that you’re building something for the good of people and that makes me feel really good from the heart,’ he said, ‘you’re building something that people can get better in now, and well into the future.’

THE WINNERS IN FULL

Construction Manager of the Year 2011

Roger Frost MCIOB, Balfour Beatty

Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham

New Build / Refurbishment Projects Over £60M

GOLD: Phillip Clarke MCIOB, Lend Lease

One New Change, London, EC4

GOLD: Nick Mann MCIOB, Kier Build

Sainsbury Laboratory, Cambridge University

New Build / Refurbishment Projects £30M to £60M

GOLD: Adam Harding ICIOB, BAM

Watford Campus, West Herts College