Contract News

BOUYGUES CHOSEN FOR TURNKEY DELIVERY OF NEW DATA CENTRE

Bouygues Energies & Services Contracting, a subsidiary of Bouygues Construction, has been selected by VIRTUS Data Centres for the turnkey delivery of its LONDON7 data centre. LONDON7 is the third facility on VIRTUS’ Stockley Park campus, which is the largest in London and the UK.

Bouygues Energies & Services Contracting will be responsible for the design, build, electrical and mechanical services and commissioning of the data centre. The TIER III data centre will be built with an overall floor area of 26,000m² including 13,000m² of technical IT data space.

When fully deployed, the facility will offer 28MW of critical IT load using state-of-the-art technologies to cater to high-density customer requirements. It will deploy a highly efficient flooded room principal for cooling, including chilled water and air hot-aisle containment at the rack level. This will significantly decrease energy and water consumption compared to the typical data centre performance characteristics.

The facility will consist of 8Nr self-contained data halls, all designed eco-efficiently and capable of subdivision for maximum flexibility from a rack in a shared space, to their own suite or data hall, each with its own dedicated power and innovative cooling systems.

Bouygues Energies & Services Contracting will bring an innovative modular solution to achieve the quality, speed to market, scalability and flexibility required in this state-ofthe-art data centre. In collaboration with its core supply chain partners, the 28MW power units will be assembled, pre-tested and pre-commissioned at the manufacturing

site in Blackburn. The final installation, test and commissioning of the power units will be executed after 12 weeks of pre-fabrication and deployed in approximately 9MW increments across a nine-day period.

Bouygues Energies & Services, bouygues-es.co.uk

ECA MEMBERS SUPPORT NHS NIGHTINGALE HOSPITALS

The building of NHS Nightingale Hospitals in England during the pandemic has been supported by a range of ECA Members, including Interserve, Kier, NG Bailey and Power Electrics.

Other ECA Members were involved in supporting hospital construction in Scotland and Wales, including Balfour Beatty, Highadmit Projects, JM Walden, RDM Electrical & Mechanical, Alpine Works and IWEC Electrical.

Temporary new hospitals have been built across the country, in locations including Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, London, Glasgow, and Cwmbran in Wales.

Helen Atkinson, ECA Director of Member Services, comments, “It was pleasing to see ECA Member businesses helping to build these emergency hospitals at this critical time for our country. It highlights the importance of engineering services to the successful delivery of key infrastructure projects.

“Many ECA Member businesses are continuing to work through these challenging times to ensure that construction projects continue and that existing buildings are maintained and they should all be proud of the part they are playing.”

Interserve was involved with the Nightingale Hospital in Birmingham, where 400 employees worked over 86,000 hours, sometimes 16 hours a day. They laid 64 miles of electrical cable, 10 football pitches worth of vinyl flooring and 10 miles of copper piping.

Matt Loffman, Design and Technical Manager, Interserve Engineering Services, states, “There was a distinct and overwhelming feeling of national pride in being part of the team in delivering this project. I am proud to have played my part in supporting my colleagues in the successful delivery. It’s something that will live with me forever.”

ECA Members have given active support to the national effort to protect societal health and the NHS in other ways. For example, Walden Security, a division of T Clarke, supplied new HIKVision thermal fever scanning cameras to the NHS.

In addition, other ECA Members including Lindhurst Engineering and the University of Bath, either provided valuable PPE to the NHS or led campaigns to encourage donations of key protective equipment.

There were also many other donations from ECA Members to the NHS, including HE Simm, donating 500 reusable water bottles to Liverpool hospitals and Hilton Cannon Electrical, providing some Easter cheer to hospitals in Nottingham by donating Easter eggs. ECA, eca.co.uk

COMPLEX CONNECTIONS FOR AN APARTMENT DEVELOPMENT

Worcestershire-based independent connections provider, Rock Power Connections, has finalised the installation of an electrical supply to Alban House, a Grade II listed façade that has recently been converted into a residential development in Hereford City Centre.

The building, which had previously stood empty for over six years, has been converted into 18 luxury apartments and two commercial units.

Rock Power Connections was appointed to upgrade and install the new electrical supply for the residential development, which included the implementation of a new onsite substation and individual meters for each apartment.

Due to the Saxon heritage of the site, Rock Power Connections appointed an archaeologist to oversee all excavations and ensure the history of the building was preserved. This included housing the 500KVA packaged substation in a listed coach house, which required additional listed-building consent.

Rob Davies, Project Manager for Rock Power Connections, explains, “Due to the site being of historical interest, upfront planning was key to this project to address and mitigate all potential issues.

“We encountered various challenges whilst completing this project, including finding oyster shells, which caused delays, and meant the team had to work closely with Western Power Distribution and their contractor to reschedule works. However, we were all very pleased with the end result and particularly in seeing a new development of modern apartments within the local community.”

Alban House is one of the latest connection projects to have been completed by the growing independent connections provider, where the Rock team liaised very closely with Western Power Distribution, the Council and the archaeologist to ensure the installation was treated sensitively, whilst adhering to the project timescale. Rock Power Connections, rockpowerconnections.co.uk

LANDMARK FOR BIRMINGHAM LIGHTING PROJECT

A four-year project to bring energy efficient LED street lights to Birmingham’s Housing amenity lighting has reached its first major landmark, after year one works were successfully completed by Nottingham-based civil and electrical engineering firm, McCann, in April this year.

The non-PFI housing lighting maintenance upgrade project was awarded to McCann by Birmingham City Council in 2019 and will see an investment of £3.8m to upgrade and maintain 3,000 existing lighting units with modern LED lighting technology and associated infrastructure. Works started in April 2019 with an expected project completion date of March 31, 2023.

The cutting-edge lighting technology being installed in Birmingham is expected to bring significant benefits to both city residents and the local authority.

Paul Laythorpe, Highways Electrical Asset Manager for Birmingham City Council, explains, “As with many local authorities across the country, we see the benefits of making a significant financial investment in order to bring the latest street lighting technology ASITE HELPING PROPERTY DEVELOPERS TO BUILD HOMES to our roads. Replacing assets that are beyond their useful life with energy efficient equivalents is not only cost effective for us, but also for our residents.

“Once complete, our non-PFI housing lighting scheme will reduce the electricity associated with Housing street lighting by 50% and bring Birmingham City Council’s annual spend on housing street lighting down by £75,000. It will also reduce light pollution and create a much safer environment for road users and pedestrians.”

The four-year contract also includes the collation and verification of existing housing lighting asset data using mobile technology and GIS mapping.

Paul and his team are happy with the progress made in year one and have found working alongside McCann straightforward in achieving successful delivery. McCann, mccann-ltd.co.uk

FIRE DETECTORS HELP PROTECT BRISTOL HOSPITAL

Nittan Europe, a UK manufacturer of conventional and addressable fire detection products and systems, has seen its its Evolution analogue addressable fire detectors installed into the NHS Nightingale Hospital in Bristol.

Built in less than three weeks at the University of West of England Frenchay campus, NHS Nightingale Hospital Bristol has the capacity to provide up to 300 intensive care beds for coronavirus patients if local services need them. The new facility is one of seven Nightingale hospitals set up around the country as part of a massive NHS effort to respond to the COVID-19 health emergency.

into Ramtech Electronics’ WES wireless firm alarm system, which is designed to provide a simple, fast and secure method of communicating fire and medical emergencies in the complex environmental conditions of construction sites.

Whilst WES has been designed to provide temporary protection on construction sites, its ease of use, reliability and quality made it ideal for use in the temporary Nightingale Hospital. Wireless fire alarm systems are ideal for temporary sites as they don’t require specialist trades to set up, and any number of call points can be deployed in minutes and linked wirelessly to cover large or small sites. The signal passes through all commonly found materials including steel, concrete and stone.

Nittan Evolution EVC-DP dual optical detectors are incorporated into the WES system. The detectors feature dual optical technology to reduce false alarms caused by non-combustion products such as steam, dust and aerosols.

The WES wireless fire alarm system featuring the Nittan detectors has been installed into the communal and welfare areas of NHS Nightingale Hospital Bristol. Nittan, nittan.co.uk

Nittan’s fire detectors have been incorporated

A Common Data Environment (CDE) solution from Asite is being used by Croydon Council’s development company, Brick By Brick, as part of its works on a number of housing projects across the South-London town.

Asite is a platform that enables organisations working on large capital projects to come together, plan, design, and build with seamless information sharing across the entire supply chain.

Brick By Brick was established in 2016 by Croydon Council to design and build new homes across the borough, with both private and affordable properties to buy and rent.

Asite was awarded the multi-year contract, which will see the platform implemented to streamline document management and workflow processes across their project portfolio.

Rob Clifton, Asite SVP for the UK and Europe, says, “Millions of people in the UK are living in an unaffordable, insecure or unsuitable home and face issues such as overcrowding or financial instability. Our platform will play an instrumental role in helping to bring innovative and necessary housing projects to life, increasing the availability of affordable housing to the residents of Croydon.”

Chloe Phelps, Head of Design and Commercial at Brick By Brick, adds, “Brick By Brick has a significant pipeline of schemes, many of which are smaller sites. This means we simultaneously manage several different sets of partners and a large volume of reporting and correspondence. As we move into the next phase of delivery, Asite will transform how we manage the large quantities of information received from contractors and consultants, with the commenting features helping us to provide feedback in an organised and trackable fashion.”

Lion Green Road development is one project example that will use Asite’s platform. The residential-led scheme, designed by Mary Duggan Architects, will deliver 157 dwellings as part of Brick By Brick’s ambitious strategy to deliver new and affordable homes across the borough of Croydon. Asite, asite.com

CP TAKES CONTROL AT OLD ADMIRALTY BUILDING

Control expert, CP Electronics, has supplied its fully addressable and networkable RAPID lighting control system for use in the newly refurbished Old Admiralty Building in London.

The building has been home to some of the most famous figures in history, including Winston Churchill when he was First Lord of the Admiralty. The Grade II listing of the building presented many challenges to the design and installation team, as decorative cornices and wood panelling could not be disturbed; so the installation of wiring routes and DALI cabling required careful consideration and planning.

CP’s Rapid system was specified for the project to control all lighting throughout the building, including the roof and external lighting. The project utilises CP’s full Rapid system, comprising 217 DALI gateways and 52 pluggable lighting control modules (LCM’s) – in addition to 500 six-pole Vitesse modular LCM’s for the DALI and power to the lights. The installation had to ensure that each rise demise has its own area controller, with five riser demises over the five floors to allow for control via local occupancy detectors and scene plates along with switches for roof and plant lighting. CP also supplied 1,800 PIR’s and a head-end PC with emergency monitoring to provide full monitoring, testing and reporting which can quickly identify issues with specific luminaires or devices that can be easily rectified. Corridor hold has been used to ensure occupants never walk into unlit spaces, and scene setting is available in all offices and meeting/conference rooms. The emergency testing procedure is automated with function and duration tests that are set up as a scheduled calendar event. This means a report can be easily generated and exported to Excel for analysis by the FM team, enabling them to fulfil their due diligence for emergency lighting tests and maintenance.