A CONSTRUCTION manager from Bradford on Avon man was shortlisted for the construction industry’s most prestigious prize for his work on a major new building in the town.

Tony Richards, 54, who lives with his family in Holt, was shortlisted for the Construction Manager of the Year Awards, for his work leading the construction of Bradford on Avon’s AB Dynamics facilities.

Their new two-storey engineering and workshop building is helping the British high-tech specialists deliver cutting-edge driverless car technology across the world.

Mr Richards led the scheme on behalf of UK contractor BAM Construction and his team which engaged 80 local companies with the construction process.

He said: "We all work within a challenging industry and our ability to work collaboratively and effectively is critical.

“We established an outstanding client relationship and we had an excellent team on the project, which I am proud to say was a success.”

Unusually for the construction industry, Mr Richards lives just two miles down the road. He said: “Normally we’d work miles away from where we live, so it was lovely to be within walking distance, even if the local roads are not ones you’d choose to walk on.

"That gives you some additional quality of life.”

Designed by architects SRA of Bath, the £8.4 million building has already proven highly successful winning the best large commercial project award from the Wiltshire local authority building control and the constructing excellence South West project of the year. The building was officially opened by HRH the Duke of Gloucester.

BAM used a highly sophisticated collaborative technology called BIM to create the new facilities.

Mr Richards added: “We now manage the facilities in the building for AB Dynamics, using the data model we set up during its construction, which is very valuable for its efficient performance.”

The AB Dynamics scheme is not his only contribution to Wiltshire’s built environment.

He worked on Bath’s Empire Hotel twenty years ago, a job which brought him up from his native Cornwall, initially in Melksham, but then to Holt, and that saw him remain ever since.