Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

As promised last week, this blog will aim to outline what my role will entail, detail the main challenges associated with the project and highlight some issues that I’ve already come across.

Job role

I’ve been given the job title of Building Services Manager and as I mentioned last week I am being given responsibility for the services in the basement; although it looks like I’m going to be shadowing the principal building services manager whilst I earn my spurs. The M&E services within phase 1 are being delivered by one main sub-contractor, Skanska. My role will involve setting benchmarks for different areas / services within the basement and ensuring these are complied with, reviewing & approving risk assessments and method statement (RAMS) and conducting Inspection and Testing Plans (ITPs). There will also be an element of facilitating Skanska’s work within the basement and coordinating with Carillion’s project manager for the basement. Any feedback from the PEW staff or cse 55 on whether this seems like a sensible role for working towards passing professional review would be greatly appreciated.

Project Challenges

The most significant challenges on the project appear to be logistics, the programme and design.

The logistics issues with the site are caused by the lack of available space on site for storage, the size of the build and limited hook time (despite there being 10 tower cranes on site) available. The service risers, corridor modules (horizontal pipework distribution), bathrooms, apartment utility cupboards (consumer unit, DHW and MVHR) and plant rooms are being pre-fabricated and brought onto site as modules for final connection. Byrne brothers, the concrete contractor, have priority on hook time, so Skanska are having to move their stores onto the appropriate floor between 1730 and 2200. The demand on lift is also stopping waste material leaving the site promptly and is having an impact on housekeeping. The logistic issues look like they will be a challenge throughout the construction phase although I am looking at options to alleviate this in the basement by getting round the reliance on the tower crane.

The programme has had to change for various reasons and is becoming more aggressive as acceleration is used to try and claw back the 22 weeks of delay. Work is regularly being carried out until 2200 during the week and the site is open on Saturdays. Hopefully a final version of the programme will shortly be agreed when the client and Carillion come to a consensus on how the existing delay and future variation that I previously mentioned will be dealt with.

The final challenge is the design, which is still evolving as the client varies his requirement. Again it is hoped that this should be finalised shortly. There does appear to be some method in the client’s madness to changing their mind constantly; there is a general push to complete the entire redevelopment as quickly as possible to capitalise on London’s high property prices. Therefore phase 1 construction was started before the remaining phases were designed and this is causing issues and additional costs where there is inter-dependency. At least it looks like there is no inter-dependency or requirement for change when it comes to biscuits. Whilst wadding through reams of project documentation I came across the following clause in the employer’s requirements:

The Contractor is to ensure that…a selection of biscuits is to be provided at all times which should include but not be limited to chocolate digestives, chocolate bourbons and ginger biscuits. Cadbury’s chocolate selection and pink wafer biscuits or similar is to be provided for Principal and Project meetings.

The story so far.

To date I’ve generally been shadowing people around site and reading into the project documentation. A recent walk-around produced an interesting turn up for the books. Skanska had been craning some of the pre-fabricated service risers into position. Due to their allocated hook time this was occurring late into the evening. During a walk around on Friday morning the following was found:

Service riser with non-RAMS compliant edge protection.

3m fall behind flimsy plastic barrier

Essentially the service risers had been left without Dura grid in at each floor, the protection in front of the riser was not as per the RAMS and was deemed to be unsafe. The immediate solution was that works were stopped until Skanska had rectified the issue, which was achieved within a couple of hours. This final solution was the installation of anchor bolts on each side of the riser to which ply board was bolted and the appropriate warning signs attached. What I found particularly interesting was that initial discussions were that a near miss should be created for the issue, despite the fact that nothing had fallen down the riser and nobody had come close to falling down the riser. However, as soon as the Integrate Systems Management (ISM) manager highlighted that a near miss would need putting on AIRline and impact on Carillion’s Key Performance Indicators the situation was de-escalated. A decision was instead made to produce an internal report rather than a near miss. My conclusion is that safety is taken seriously but so is performance and reputation. It also ties in with what Guz mentioned with regards to the five times the tipper truck on his site could have rolled but wasn’t recorded. The real cause of the problem is undoubtedly the time the work was carried out. Skanska’s hook time is in the evening, but their operatives work throughout the day as well. It is more than likely that it is guys from the day shift who are working overtime in the evening and an attitude of let’s just get the job done and get home is what led to it not being finished off properly. The programme does not allow for evening works to be cancelled and so it looks like the solution will be to employ additional supervisors specifically for the evening to ensure RAMS are being adhered to.

After three weeks leave, I have now arrived on site at phase 1, Battersea Power Station and started working for Carillion.  This blog will outline the scope & set-up of the Battersea development and identify what seems to be the most significant M&E elements to phase 1 in order to set the context for future blogs.

The entire power station development will be split into 7 phases, phases 1 – 3 of which are now up and running. I’ll expand on phase one in the next paragraph. Phase two is the development of the power station which is being carried out by Skanska, phase three is just beginning and will be an extension to the Northern line. The entire development is scheduled for completion in 2025.  The client is the Battersea Power Station Development Company, which is a Malaysian consortium investing approximately £8bn into the redevelopment.  The client’s architect is Ian Simpson Architects, structural advisor – Burro Happold, M&E advisor – Hoare Lea, Quantity surveyor – Gardner & Theobold and Project Manager – Turner and Townsend. The client’s team has designed the project up to RIBA stage D.

Overview of the Battersea Power Station Development. Phase 1 is labelled as Circus West.

Phase 1 consists of 866 luxury apartments located in the North West corner of the Battersea site; between the railway line into Victoria, the river Thames and the power station itself.  Carillion are the principle contractor working under a JCT design and build contract to take the project from stage D to completion. Apartments range in price from £800k for a studio apartment to £4m for a four bed. The build is split into seven cores (A to G) which form RS1A, with a further five cores (H to L) which make up RS1B.  RS1A is 14 stories tall with two basements and RS1B eight with two basements. Phase 1 is currently 74 weeks into a 148 week schedule, although this is likely to be extended.

The heating & cooling to the apartments will be provided by mechanical ventilation with heat recovery linked to a communal energy system.  The most significant M&E engineering element associated with phase 1 seems to be the construction of an energy centre in the basement of core G. This will involve the installation of 2 x 4.2 MW boilers & 1 x 7.2 MW boiler, and 2 x 1.5MW & 1 x 3MW chillers.  The original concept design saw this energy centre (which supplies services site wide, not just to phase 1) being constructed as part of phase 2. It appears the client is unable to complete this work prior to phase 1 & 2 being handed over and occupied. Therefore a variation has been made to phase 1 to install the energy centre in the basement of core G.  This variation looks as if it will bring significant challenges with it. The current building design does not incorporate flues for the boilers that will be in the energy centre. This means a solution to take the flue gases across to phase 2 and up one of the power station stacks is having to be explored. The space available and limiting factors of working in the basement of block g means that certain elements of the energy centre will still need to be located remotely. This currently looks like it will involve the build of a remote cooling compound incorporating two cooling towers (let’s hope we don’t get legionnaires) for the chillers and life safety system generators. The remote cooling compound will be located somewhere on phase 4’s real estate and cross phases 2 and 3 to connect it, which will bring its own challenges. This remote cooling compound will bring about significant costs, effort to construct and is only temporary. The long term plan is build the original energy centre at the front of phase 2, connect it to the energy centre in the basement of core g, allowing the remote cooling centre to be removed in time for construction on phase 4 to start.

The Carillion M&E team currently consists of 6 personnel; head of M&E, 1 x design , 2 x commercial, 1 x delivery and myself.   My role is looking like it will focus on the basements and the energy centre in core g, which should provide plenty of opportunities, but will involve working in a damp dark basement for a large portion of my time.

That should do for setting the context of the project. I’ll aim to provide another blog next week which outlines  a little more of what my role will be and more details on the challenges / risks associated with the project.