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Keeping a weather eye
10:41 30 Apr 2003
|
On the noticeboard of meeting room two in the Costain/Skanska jv
project office at Exeter Business Park in Devon, on 25 January
2003, staff had access to the legend: "Wind 15-18m/s; rain until
10am; 2-3mm drizzle; 8-9¼ centigrade."
What is unusual in that? Why should a weather forecast, albeit useful and accurate information, have particular relevance on this site?
Because the client of the £160m design and build head office and operations centre in Exeter is none other than the Meteorological Office (MO).
The significance of accurate weather forecasting should not be played down.
"Just before Christmas, severe gales were predicted," recalls Rob Varley, project manager with the Met Office. "Our forecasters were able to notify the site here at Exeter and the team could batten down the hatches."
In terms of a service that could be offered to other construction sites, it has great potential - particularly when it comes to lifting operations, where project managers could be warned in advance of high wind speeds.
"For a suitable fee, it could be made available to all contractors," adds Varley with a smile.
Unusual route
The Met Office is a construction client with a difference. As well as supplying the Costain/Skanska jv project team with an inside track into climatic conditions, it has opted for an unusual procurement route.
"The government is strongly pushing PFI, particularly for all of its agencies," explains Varley, who adds that since the MO forms part of the Ministry of Defence, it comes under the aegis of a government body.
However, it is an organisation with a difference.
"The MO is an independent trading organisation, and as such we have control of our money," says Varley. "All the money we earn, we have the freedom to spend and, unlike most other government agencies, we have the option of how we spend it."
So in accordance with the government's policy, the MO has gone down the PFI route - but without the 'F'.
According to Varley: "We are capital funding the building at Exeter. The link of design and build along with maintenance operations is being kept, but we are not taking on a heavy, long-term financial burden."
Thanks to the sale of property owned by the MO, most of the building has already been paid for.
"It is a very unusual route to choose, but I can't claim it is unique," says Varley. "However, we believe we are getting a good deal out of it. Our status gives us the freedom to determine our own future."
Despite being in the fortuitous position of being able to fund its state-of-the-art headquarters, there is no disguising the real reason why the MO is moving to Exeter from its present offices in Bracknell.
"In the Thames Valley, it is difficult to retain the best possible people in the profession when you are only offering standard government salaries," says Varley, before adding that, as the MO's raw material comes down cables, the organisation can carry out its business anywhere.
"In the short term the moving process is painful, but in the long term, it will be of huge benefit to the MO," he adds.
The MO is working closely with the special purpose company Stratus Integrated Services (see box, p19) to relocate 1,000 staff from Bracknell to Exeter. The bulk of the move is scheduled to take place between July and November.
The new location
In the meantime, the Costain/Skanska project team is forging ahead with the construction of the new premises.
They will consist of six three-storey modular steel-framed blocks laid out in the shape of a hand, linked by a covered space. Inside the accommodation comprises 13,000m2 of office space, which includes two computer halls to house the MO super computers, an IT workshop, energy centre, National Meteorological Library, training facility, innovation centre, sports facility, conference centre, seminar rooms and offices.
The project team has two years to complete the contract. Construction began in October 2001 and completion is scheduled for November this year.
"We are in a hurry to get out of the Bracknell building, as it is failing to fulfil our business needs," explains Varley. "Nobody is under any doubt that this is a fast-track project."
The client was so keen to get the work under way that once the Costain/Skanska jv reached preferred bidder stage in autumn 2001, the project team was immediately allowed on site to begin enabling works. According to Geoff Hunt, project manager with Costain/Skanska jv: "If anything had gone wrong with our bid, we would have returned everything to the way it was originally."
Despite the 28ha area being a greenfield site, the enabling works were complex.
First, as the development is situated in a natural valley, it is prone to run off from the surrounding fields. Approximately 1.6km of temporary drainage had to be installed to act as a cut-off drain, as well as lower the water table within the building footprint, while maintaining the natural water course level.
There was a further complication. "We are actually over a natural aquifer, so we have been very careful in carrying out the earth works," says Hunt. This prompted concerns from the Environment Agency about the wisdom of using piles on the development. "As the ground has strong sandstone, we opted for pad foundations instead."
Other enabling works included stripping 70,000m2 of topsoil and retaining it for land-scaping; excavating 60,000m3 of sandy subsoil to create flat areas for 10 buildings; laying 28,000m2 of pad foundations; and pouring more than 1,200m3 of concrete in more than 200 foundation blocks for five of the main buildings.
In December 2001, Stratus was told that its bid had been successful, by which time the project team had successfully completed the muck-shifting operation.
Design and relocation
However, the enabling works was not the only part of the project to make an early start. Since the project comprises a hugely complex M&E contract worth some £25m, specialist Haden Young was appointed to the design team in January 2001, allowing it to contribute to the project from conception. Haden Young's design and installation teams relocated to the Exeter site in March 2002.
With the emphasis on the uninterrupted operation of the MO's supercomputers, the overriding concern of the client is that there should be no break in the key services that support this facility 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.
It is a popular misconception to think the MO focuses mainly on commercial and public weather forecasts. This forms just a small part of its services.
According to Rob Varley, the vast bulk of the MO's work is carried out for its biggest customer - the MoD. "We have forecasters on the location of every military operation in the world," he explains.
The only other operation of its kind is the American World Area Forecast Centre, based in Kansas. Between them, the two world forecast centres keep the world flying. If the MO was to go down, the American centre could keep flights going for a certain amount of hours, and vice versa.
The two agencies work in conjunction rather than in competition with each other. It is therefore imperative that the M&E services offer the MO a fully reliable back-up capability. "The MO's supercomputers and their role in meteorological forecasting are at the core of the Haden Young design," says Bob Horner, Haden Young's contracts manager for the South West.
In order to prioritise between different sections, the development has been split into three different levels of resilience, although Horner admits there is little to choose between Levels 1 and 2, as to which are the most onerous.
"This resilience of no single point of failure is provided within the Level 1 areas by an 'n+1' plant philosophy - duplicated air, water, electrical and controls circuits and the use of a combination of air cooled and water cooled chillers on the chilled water circuits," explains the contracts manager.
The two chilled water circuits operate separately, both hydraulically and electrically. Both run at 50% of their capability and, should one fail, the other system ramps up to 100% to take up the full load.
"A combined heat and power plant is provided to supply the base electrical load for one of the IT halls and the waste heat is used to generate further cooling capacity via an absorption chiller," continues Horner.
With each computer hall having a demand of 1.75MW of electrical power, it is hardly surprising that the electrical supply to the development equates to the equivalent demand of a small town.
Energy conservation
Along with guaranteeing the MO a non-stop power supply, Haden Young is working with the project team in the integration of M&E into the building and structural design process to produce a development that promotes energy conservation.
"The other area key to this job is energy efficiency," explains Horner. "The client requires a very green building." One of the ways of achieving this is to make use of the mass of the building with its special hollow core floor/ceiling slabs as an energy store to cool the building on hot days, and warm it on cold days. Air is passed through the hollow slabs, with cool night air used during the summers and warm internal air from the occupants, lights and computers used during the winter.
Other energy-efficient aspects include a grey water system, landscaping that aims to encourage flora and fauna, as well as a business travel plan to encourage MOstaff to use sustainable methods of travel to work. It is not surprising then that the development is anticipated to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating.
So, in terms of the project's current progress and likely outcome, it would be safe to say that calm winds prevail, no storms are anticipated and a sunny outlook is expected by everyone concerned. Even Michael Fish couldn't get that wrong. n
What is unusual in that? Why should a weather forecast, albeit useful and accurate information, have particular relevance on this site?
Because the client of the £160m design and build head office and operations centre in Exeter is none other than the Meteorological Office (MO).
The significance of accurate weather forecasting should not be played down.
"Just before Christmas, severe gales were predicted," recalls Rob Varley, project manager with the Met Office. "Our forecasters were able to notify the site here at Exeter and the team could batten down the hatches."
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In terms of a service that could be offered to other construction sites, it has great potential - particularly when it comes to lifting operations, where project managers could be warned in advance of high wind speeds.
"For a suitable fee, it could be made available to all contractors," adds Varley with a smile.
Unusual route
The Met Office is a construction client with a difference. As well as supplying the Costain/Skanska jv project team with an inside track into climatic conditions, it has opted for an unusual procurement route.
"The government is strongly pushing PFI, particularly for all of its agencies," explains Varley, who adds that since the MO forms part of the Ministry of Defence, it comes under the aegis of a government body.
However, it is an organisation with a difference.
"The MO is an independent trading organisation, and as such we have control of our money," says Varley. "All the money we earn, we have the freedom to spend and, unlike most other government agencies, we have the option of how we spend it."
So in accordance with the government's policy, the MO has gone down the PFI route - but without the 'F'.
According to Varley: "We are capital funding the building at Exeter. The link of design and build along with maintenance operations is being kept, but we are not taking on a heavy, long-term financial burden."
Thanks to the sale of property owned by the MO, most of the building has already been paid for.
"It is a very unusual route to choose, but I can't claim it is unique," says Varley. "However, we believe we are getting a good deal out of it. Our status gives us the freedom to determine our own future."
Despite being in the fortuitous position of being able to fund its state-of-the-art headquarters, there is no disguising the real reason why the MO is moving to Exeter from its present offices in Bracknell.
"In the Thames Valley, it is difficult to retain the best possible people in the profession when you are only offering standard government salaries," says Varley, before adding that, as the MO's raw material comes down cables, the organisation can carry out its business anywhere.
"In the short term the moving process is painful, but in the long term, it will be of huge benefit to the MO," he adds.
The MO is working closely with the special purpose company Stratus Integrated Services (see box, p19) to relocate 1,000 staff from Bracknell to Exeter. The bulk of the move is scheduled to take place between July and November.
The new location
In the meantime, the Costain/Skanska project team is forging ahead with the construction of the new premises.
They will consist of six three-storey modular steel-framed blocks laid out in the shape of a hand, linked by a covered space. Inside the accommodation comprises 13,000m2 of office space, which includes two computer halls to house the MO super computers, an IT workshop, energy centre, National Meteorological Library, training facility, innovation centre, sports facility, conference centre, seminar rooms and offices.
The project team has two years to complete the contract. Construction began in October 2001 and completion is scheduled for November this year.
"We are in a hurry to get out of the Bracknell building, as it is failing to fulfil our business needs," explains Varley. "Nobody is under any doubt that this is a fast-track project."
The client was so keen to get the work under way that once the Costain/Skanska jv reached preferred bidder stage in autumn 2001, the project team was immediately allowed on site to begin enabling works. According to Geoff Hunt, project manager with Costain/Skanska jv: "If anything had gone wrong with our bid, we would have returned everything to the way it was originally."
Despite the 28ha area being a greenfield site, the enabling works were complex.
First, as the development is situated in a natural valley, it is prone to run off from the surrounding fields. Approximately 1.6km of temporary drainage had to be installed to act as a cut-off drain, as well as lower the water table within the building footprint, while maintaining the natural water course level.
There was a further complication. "We are actually over a natural aquifer, so we have been very careful in carrying out the earth works," says Hunt. This prompted concerns from the Environment Agency about the wisdom of using piles on the development. "As the ground has strong sandstone, we opted for pad foundations instead."
Other enabling works included stripping 70,000m2 of topsoil and retaining it for land-scaping; excavating 60,000m3 of sandy subsoil to create flat areas for 10 buildings; laying 28,000m2 of pad foundations; and pouring more than 1,200m3 of concrete in more than 200 foundation blocks for five of the main buildings.
In December 2001, Stratus was told that its bid had been successful, by which time the project team had successfully completed the muck-shifting operation.
Design and relocation
However, the enabling works was not the only part of the project to make an early start. Since the project comprises a hugely complex M&E contract worth some £25m, specialist Haden Young was appointed to the design team in January 2001, allowing it to contribute to the project from conception. Haden Young's design and installation teams relocated to the Exeter site in March 2002.
With the emphasis on the uninterrupted operation of the MO's supercomputers, the overriding concern of the client is that there should be no break in the key services that support this facility 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.
It is a popular misconception to think the MO focuses mainly on commercial and public weather forecasts. This forms just a small part of its services.
According to Rob Varley, the vast bulk of the MO's work is carried out for its biggest customer - the MoD. "We have forecasters on the location of every military operation in the world," he explains.
The only other operation of its kind is the American World Area Forecast Centre, based in Kansas. Between them, the two world forecast centres keep the world flying. If the MO was to go down, the American centre could keep flights going for a certain amount of hours, and vice versa.
The two agencies work in conjunction rather than in competition with each other. It is therefore imperative that the M&E services offer the MO a fully reliable back-up capability. "The MO's supercomputers and their role in meteorological forecasting are at the core of the Haden Young design," says Bob Horner, Haden Young's contracts manager for the South West.
In order to prioritise between different sections, the development has been split into three different levels of resilience, although Horner admits there is little to choose between Levels 1 and 2, as to which are the most onerous.
"This resilience of no single point of failure is provided within the Level 1 areas by an 'n+1' plant philosophy - duplicated air, water, electrical and controls circuits and the use of a combination of air cooled and water cooled chillers on the chilled water circuits," explains the contracts manager.
The two chilled water circuits operate separately, both hydraulically and electrically. Both run at 50% of their capability and, should one fail, the other system ramps up to 100% to take up the full load.
"A combined heat and power plant is provided to supply the base electrical load for one of the IT halls and the waste heat is used to generate further cooling capacity via an absorption chiller," continues Horner.
With each computer hall having a demand of 1.75MW of electrical power, it is hardly surprising that the electrical supply to the development equates to the equivalent demand of a small town.
Energy conservation
Along with guaranteeing the MO a non-stop power supply, Haden Young is working with the project team in the integration of M&E into the building and structural design process to produce a development that promotes energy conservation.
"The other area key to this job is energy efficiency," explains Horner. "The client requires a very green building." One of the ways of achieving this is to make use of the mass of the building with its special hollow core floor/ceiling slabs as an energy store to cool the building on hot days, and warm it on cold days. Air is passed through the hollow slabs, with cool night air used during the summers and warm internal air from the occupants, lights and computers used during the winter.
Other energy-efficient aspects include a grey water system, landscaping that aims to encourage flora and fauna, as well as a business travel plan to encourage MOstaff to use sustainable methods of travel to work. It is not surprising then that the development is anticipated to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating.
So, in terms of the project's current progress and likely outcome, it would be safe to say that calm winds prevail, no storms are anticipated and a sunny outlook is expected by everyone concerned. Even Michael Fish couldn't get that wrong. n
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