The Builder of the Year title for 2011 has been awarded by the Estonian Association of Construction Entrepreneurs (EACE) to Nordecon’s Arvo Kirotus, whose management of the construction work on a biofilter for Tallinn Sewage Treatment Plant was highly commended not only by the client, but also by the designer, planner and construction supervisor working on the project.

"I’m really pleased an engineering structure’s taken the title this year – thank you, jury!" Kirotus said. "They’re very different to public buildings, and most of the time people don’t even notice them. The biofilter we constructed is a modest thing to look at, from the outside at least, and it’s on private property, so hardly anyone will see it, but it’s still something whose usefulness to the environment can be measured in numbers and whose construction, given the nature of the thing, was pretty complicated."

Kirotus says the client had a very clear idea of what they wanted. "And to give them that we had to work with them really closely, not only on the engineering side of things, but also in terms of the building quality required," he explained. "But everything turned out perfectly, and we completed it by the deadline we’d agreed on."

Kirotus has been working in the construction field since 1978 and joined the Nordecon group – under its former name Eesti Ehitus – as a project manager in 1989.

Among the final contenders for the title alongside Kirotus were his Nordecon colleagues Peeter Voovere (who led construction on the Ahhaa Science Centre) and Martin Viilep (who led construction on the Ahtme peak load boiler plant).

The EACE has been awarding the ‘Builder of the Year’ title for three years with the aim of promoting the profession and recognising outstanding talent in the field. Nominations can be made by members and non-members of the association alike as well as by commissioning clients.

The ‘Builder of the Year 2011’ jury consisted of Indrek Peterson (EACE), Enno Rebane (Association of Construction Material Producers of Estonia), Tõnis Tarbe (chairman of the board of the Estonian Association of Architectural and Consulting Engineering Companies), Ilmar Link & Lembit Makstin (members of the management board of the EACE), Igor Gerasenkov (Riigi Kinnisvara AS) and Eva Kiisler (Ehitaja magazine).

Photos: EACE

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