Another big milestone for Broadcasting House

On Monday I watched as Land Securities and Bovis Lend Lease handed over the keys for the BBC's new building - BH Phase II.

In a simple but important procedure a group of 19 people received formal confirmation that the 89,000M2 building was officially finished and the systems were ready for testing. This process will take 10 weeks - more about this in a future blog post. 

Now that we have achieved sectional completion, our next objective is to secure full practical completion by the end of November (22 November is the anticipated date for this), thereby delivering the project three months ahead of the contractual schedule.

Looking around the group of people who attended the handover procedure I was struck by how much each and every one of them plus their teams had put into ensuring this project went to plan. Delivering large complex construction jobs in the middle of a city is no small task and I want to pay tribute to the professionalism and hard work of Land Securities and Bovis Lend Lease and their respective teams.

Looking closer to home there are many people on the BBC side who deserve recognition, past and present, and I could go on for ages in acknowledging everyone. There is however one person who has been with the project, both man and boy, right from the very start of phase 1 in 2003 and it is appropriate to give him a mention. Gareth Pinney has lived, eaten and breathed the project since conception and his dedication and application is second to none - a big thank you.