Off-site pier plant saves BAA £1.5m

BAA has taken off-site assembly a stage further by setting up its own manufacturing facility to push forward its £750m pier segregation initiative (CJ 29 January).

The £750,000 renovation of the 120,000m2 Crawley Assembly 1 plant in West Sussex means BAA and framework partners Mansell, Mace and Crown House Engineering will produce off-the-shelf units for Gatwick and Heathrow airports.

The move will save BAA about £1.5m a year on Piers 2 and 3 at Gatwick and Pier 5 at Heathrow. The plant will produce five units a week (equivalent to 25m of corridor). The units will be delivered to site by lorries.

The plant is targeted to produce £20m of units in its first trial year. If successful, the quota could rise to £60m.

Labour costs will also drop with a saving of 20,000 hours compared to crews working on site. Reductions could soar by a further 10,000 hours as efficiency is nearly three times better than traditional methods.

"It is getting harder to put crews on site because obtaining security clearances takes three months," said BAA general manager of the fit-out delivery team Clive Coleman. "This new method of working will see some real cost and time savings and reduces the risks of accidents."

BAA considered opening a site in Wolverhampton but found little benefit in labour expenses.

After the trial, BAA will consider opening more production facilities across the country.

The operator also hopes to create other products for pier structures. It has 118 systems in use across all its airports.