Contract News

COMPLEX SIXTH FORM COLLEGE SITE GETS HOCHIKI FIRE SYSTEM UPGRADE

Paston College in Norfolk has transformed over the years from a grammar school for boys into a co-ed sixth form college dedicated to working with young people ages 16-18.

Following a recommendation from Norwich Education Services, a completely new fire system was required which would need to meet BS5839 Part 1 2017 for an L2 category. The life safety system installation project required networking across multiple sites and buildings, as well as ensuring the protection of the historic Nelson Museum. And with a main road acting as a physical divide through the middle of the campus, this was a complex project to undertake.

TP Fire & Security was commissioned to install the new system, and the company selected Hochiki’s ESP intelligent range of addressable fire detection and alarm equipment.

Kevin Harris from TP Fire & Security comments: “This was an incredibly complex project. We were working with modern and historic buildings, we had to ensure the protection of the Nelson Museum, and of course the campus is split right down the middle by a main road. We chose Hochiki because it afforded us the flexibility with the systems and devices that were needed, with a project such as this.”

As an educational facility, it was important to keep to strict budgets, especially when it came to the ongoing operational costs for the system, and, with hundreds of pupils and staff in attendance each day, a system which would be reliable and reduce false alarms was vital.

Hochiki, hochikieurope.com

J S WRIGHT SECURES £3.5M-PLUS DEAL FOR DOCK DEVELOPMENT

J S Wright has secured a contract valued at more than £3.5 million for a new harbourside development in Bristol.

The company will design and build the mechanical services for 142 high quality apartments on a long-derelict site at McArthur’s Yard on Gas Ferry Road in the city’s historic dock area.

The £36 million project, led by award-winning housebuilder, Hill, in association with leading housing provider, The Guinness Partnership, will deliver a mix of one to three-bedroom homes for market sale, shared ownership, and social rent, as well as ground floor commercial space.

J S Wright’s contract will involve designing and installing an energy centre with associated pipework to distribute low temperature hot water heating to radiators in each apartment via direct single plate heat interface units (HIUs).

The company will also install a boosted cold water system for the domestic hot and cold-water supply.

In addition, J S Wright will install energy efficient mechanical ventilation heat recovery systems, smoke ventilation and dry risers, as well as water sprinklers within residential areas.

The brief will also involve providing a building management system (BMS), incorporating a prepayment billing system for monitoring each apartment’s energy use. J S Wright, jswright.co.uk

VOLKERHIGHWAYS TO PROVIDE LED LIGHTING UPGRADES ACROSS OXFORDSHIRE

VolkerHighways has been awarded a Highways Electrical Assets contract by Oxfordshire County Council, worth £30 million. Works have begun and will continue for five years, with three possible years of extensions.

The contract will see VolkerHighways maintain approimately 60,000 streetlights and over 6,000 illuminated signs, bollards and other illuminated equipment, across the county. This will include upgrading 35,000 units with LED lighting, to increase their energy efficiency.

In addition, the team will replace aged lighting columns, and carry out both planned and responsive maintenance inspections, testing and repair works, for the duration of the contract.

Councillor Tim Bearder, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways Management, says: “The County Council is looking forward to working with VolkerHighways to deliver the maintenance and upgrade of our street lighting assets within Oxfordshire. These are exciting times as we change the existing assets to LED units, saving the authority 15,000,000kWh of energy and delivering a reduction of 2,600 tonnes of CO2”. VolkerHighways, volkerhighways.co.uk

TORQUAY’S ROYAL TERRACE GARDENS SHOWCASED IN THE BEST LIGHT

Set amongst the picturesque coastline of Torquay, South Devon, the Royal Terrace Gardens are a popular tourist attraction frequented by locals and visitors alike. Michael Grubb Studio was commissioned by Torbay Council to develop ‘Lightplay’ – a new, permanent, lit interactive route along the seafront.

The overall concept is to encourage visitors to enjoy the gardens and take inspiration by extending the notion of sunset, so as to bring a sense of health, happiness and enjoyment that comes with the warmth of evening light.

The main elements are composed of step lighting, cliff floodlighting and bespoke artist designed columns that create a holistic experience for the gardens, encouraging people to pause and enjoy their surroundings, as well as providing a safer environment.

Michael Grubb Studio collaborated with visual artist Anouk Mercier in partnership with Torquay Museum to develop a series of interactive lighting columns to form beacons and create pools of light with integrated projections along the lower pathway inspired by the museum’s collections.

Back lit, laser cut forms with the columns, ranging from corals and seaweed to birds, form a fine tracery articulating the lower pathway. Gobo projections onto the walkway of selected designs form playful dynamic punctation points.

The illuminated staircase, in an array of colours, leads to a new viewing platform with impressive sea views.

Electrical contractor, Drew and Co, formed part of the project team, working collaboratively with the creative team and suppliers to install the lighting in a live working environment. Michael Grubb Studio, michaelgrubbstudio.com

GLOBAL PUBLISHING COMPANY UPGRADES LIGHTING AT UK FACILITY

Powerlite Fitzgerald has been selected by global leader in publishing, education and research, Wiley, to update the lighting systems at its UK site.

Based in Oxford, the company was looking to overhaul its current fixtures and chose Powerlite Fitzgerald’s systems and experience for the application.

Throughout the project, Powerlite Fitzgerald’s team brought the lighting levels in line with the latest CIBSE guidelines and refreshed the current fittings which were reaching the end of their lifespan. Taking into consideration the size of the site, which houses more than 350 members of staff working around the clock, Wiley had previously faced the challenge of ensuring emergency light testing was compliant and found it difficult to set aside time for the FM team to change the constantly failing lamps and components.

The office space also had a 500x500mm concealed grid, which meant that the replacement product needed to be able to fit around its location. This led the installation team to change the planned fitting to another within the Powerlite Fitzgerald range that would work with the ceiling to allow for a quick and easy installation.

Ben Arscott, Sales Director at Powerlite Fitzgerald, says: “Our wireless system Fitz-i offered huge flexibility over a traditional hard wired DALI system. The facility management team now has access to a secure web portal where all of the reporting is captured. This allows the storage of energy and occupancy reports (heat maps and figures) and remote emergency testing results that are kept secure and can be viewed from anywhere in the world. The facility management team can then use this information to optimise the building and ensure compliance is maintained with minimal involvement.” Powerlite Fitzgerald, powerlitefitz.co.uk

SIGNIFICANT ENERGY SAVINGS DELIVERED AT SPEEDY INNOVATION CENTRE

Tools, plant and specialist equipment hire provider, Speedy, recently opened its new Innovation Centre in Milton Keynes.

Part of Speedy’s mission is to reduce energy usage, emissions and shrink its carbon footprint whilst increasing the emphasis placed on employee wellbeing. To help achieve this at the Milton Keynes site the hire specialist turned to global associates.

From the initial site visit at Milton Keynes, global associates focused on the need to provide a smart solution which met the objectives of Speedy, whilst ensuring that every single item installed added value to the project. This was achieved thanks to the implementation of a Smart Eco Solution which brings together Edge computing, Cloud enablement, LoRaWan wireless sensors and a Tridium N4 powered control platform to create a hybrid IoT BMS solution.

Carefully controlled ambient levels of heating and cooling create a healthier working environment to maintain the comfort and wellbeing of staff, whilst occupants also benefit from other energy saving measures such as PIR controlled lighting which uses daylight harvesting to maintain a 300 lux level.

Features of the installation include:

• Control of the 305kW solar photo-voltaic array which exports excess power back to the grid. • DALI controlled Intelligent high bay lighting in the warehouse which uses daylight harvesting and motion sensing. • Office lighting with PIR sensing. • A VRV system for efficient heating and cooling in the office space. • Demand led power control with integrated PIR motion detection for work bays in the testing area. • Smart heating control of the warehouse heaters using LoRaWAN sensors. • IAQ monitoring for the office and retail areas. • Temperature and roller shutter door contact status monitoring for the warehouse, ensuring that the space is only heated when required. global associates, global-associates.co.uk