New Substation in Key Town Centre Development
The project
SSE, the local utility provider, required the construction of a substation to enable a new power supply for the high-profile Kimmerfields development in Swindon Town Centre.
Enable Infrastructure (formerly BCM Construction) were contracted by Swindon Borough Council to build the new substation (D 4.7m x W 9m x H 3.5m). Its completion allowed an existing substation to be decommissioned. The specification of the civils works involved was of the highest architectural standard.
The project was essential to all enabling works, since the substation’s construction was the first step towards the construction of a new office building for Zurich Insurance, which was itself part of the implementation of the first sector of the Kimmerfields development. The Zurich block lies within the boundary of Swindon bus station.
Following the substation’s completion, Enable Infrastructure were tasked to carry out the trenching for the new associated cabling and to coordinate the laying of the cables and subsequent jointing with SSE.
The challenge
- Architectural specification. The approved-for-construction design produced by Swindon Borough Council did not align with the requirements set by the architect: the brick arrangement had to be changed to a new specification, which resulted in many on-site changes requiring approval by the on-site architect and local Building Control.
- Undertaking construction works within an operational bus station presented some difficulties, including traffic management.
- Adverse weather conditions causing delays to construction.
The solution
- We implemented a dynamic programme of key stakeholder management with both Swindon Borough Council and Building Control to resolve the specification challenges. This consisted of weekly on-site meetings, detailed daily construction reports and periodic meetings captured by OpenSpace 360 camera technology.
- Detailed traffic management plans were signed off by key stakeholders – in this case, the council and the bus station manager – and then implemented.
- Through collaborative planning with the client, we mitigated the weather-related delays by agreeing realistic milestones, prioritising key works and increasing resource so that we could still hit the desired end date.
The deliverables
- Excavating and footings
- In-situ concrete works: foundations and bases (transformers included)
- Precast concrete
- Masonry: internal and external walls
- Carpentry: roofing/joists/transformer base shuttering, formwork
- Sheet roof coverings: Bauder Roof System
- Cladding & covering: flashing and chute dressing
- Windows, screens & lights: louvres, shutters, canopies and blinds
- Doors, shutters & hatches: Sunray VentaDoor
- Metalwork – Isolated metal members/lintels
- Decoration
- Furniture, fittings & equipment, including palisade fencing installation
- Drainage below ground
- Site works
- SSE trenching
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