Waiting for take-off

BAA's flagship 4.2bn Heathrow T5 contract - Europe's largest construction contract - is two-thirds of the way though its six-year duration and is now ahead of schedule and still on budget.
Both the client and the industry have committed themselves for the long-haul journey on the project with more than 100 suppliers working across 16 major projects and 147 sub-projects
trying to group together to meet tough construction programmes and an ever-encroaching opening target of 4am on 30 March 2008.
Despite the project being grounded for eight years between 1993 and 2001 during the longest-every public enquiry in history, work on the contract seems to be running smoothly on auto pilot.
No turbulence
So far, not one day has been lost due to industrial action, although the potential turbulence from possible strike action by disgruntled workers now seems to
be registering on the project's radar.
But just how has the project progressed since work started in September 2002 to transform the former sludge works at one of the world's busiest airports, into a new terminal to cater for an extra 30 million passengers a year?
"T5 has challenged all of us to think, behave and work differently," says T5 managing director Tony Douglas. "Integrated teams, just-in-time manufacturing, logistics, the management of risk and industrial relations are all examples of the way the partnership approach, which is central to T5's success, has helped create new and exciting ways to deliver this prestigious project. This is the biggest team game in years."
In 2003, one of the largest
single archaeological excavations was completed on the 260ha site (about the size of London's Hyde Park) after uncovering 80,000 artifacts during the site survey process. This was shortly followed by enabling and earthworks getting under way to move 6.5 million m3 of earth (enough to fill the new Wembley Stadium one-and-a-half times over).
In June, the first of the two airside tunnels being bored by Morgan/Vinci was completed four weeks earlier than planned. This was followed in July by a full-sized section of the new main terminal building's roof being erected in Yorkshire by Hathaway Roofing to test the structure's construction and erection process off site.
BAA says this process, which highlighted 140 issues that needed addressing during the testing phase, prevented a potential four-month delay if the problems were identified on site.
In August, a full-scale section of the T5 baggage system was constructed and tested.
This was followed in September by the construction of the 4km storm wall outfall tunnel, which provides the drainage system for T5, completed ahead of schedule.
In November, work began on the construction of the main terminal's steel superstructure by contractor Rowen Structures.
By the start of 2004, the first of the two rivers running through the T5 site was diverted to a 6km river network running around the airport's perimeter. This was followed in March by the completion of the London Underground's 1.2km extension of the Piccadilly Line 10 days early.
In April, the first of T5's six 2,500t roof sections was jacked into position. This was followed in May by the successful
diversion of the twin rivers running through the site.
In June the main power source to the new terminal project was switched on, marking the completion of the high-voltage sub-project by Axa Power and EDF Energy on schedule.
The first of the two Heathrow Express 1.6km tunnel bores was completed in September, with the tunnel boring machine (TBM) passing within just 3m of the live Piccadilly Line.
By October T5's 900t visual control room, or cab section, of the terminal's new air traffic control centre was successfully moved 2km across the airfield to its final position.
In January this year construction began on the first of the two satellite buildings (T5b), which will open along with the main terminal building in 2008. This is now 65% complete with more than 13km of tunnels (nine tunnels in total) now in place at the site with "millimetre precision" by using 105,500 concrete tunnel lining segments and four TBMs.
The second satellite building (T5c) will be not open until 2011.
By February, T5 hit the halfway mark with 22 million man-hours worked and in March the project's control tower was erected to its full height of 87m using 12 prefabricated steel mast sections. In the same month the sixth and final section of the main terminal roof was also lifted into position.
The roof of the main terminal contains 17,000t of steel, weighing the equivalent of 2,833 bull elephants. Each 117m-long section of the roof weighs the same as 600 Land Rovers.
Inside job
A topping-out ceremony conducted two weeks ago, which marked the completion of the building structure of the main terminal building, now sparks the start of the fit-out and M&E works on the main terminal building, which is nearly 3km in length. M&E and fit-out work will last until September next year.
Each floor plate of the building is equivalent in area to 50 full-size football pitches and contains enough steel to make 148 Boeing aircraft.
About 4,300 prefabricated modules containing building services will be installed by Amec and Mace, as well as 94 escalators and 142 lifts being installed by Kone as work starts on fitting out public, retail and commercial areas.
More than 1km of conveyor belt will also be installed in T5 along with 27 X-Ray machines - all supported by 4,000t of steel.
As well as the fit-out of the main terminal building, work will be needed to complete services in the bored rail tunnels and the track transit system; Laing O'Rourke will be looking to complete the construction of its 4,000-space multi-storey car-park for the new terminal.
Around the terminal work will finish on the 12 aircraft stands being handed over for use at Heathrow. Ten stands have been handed over with the remaining two expected to be ready for use by next March.
Landscape work, which will include 1,500 semi-mature trees, 2,500 semi-mature shrubs, 30,000 native woodland plants and 2,000m of hedgerow, will start this year and is expected to last until 2007.
A 600-room hotel is also due to be constructed at the site, although this is not being managed by BAA.
Handover of the T5 project, as a whole, will be conducted in stages between October 2007 and March 2008. This will involve systems tests, obtaining licenses and consent for operation, staff training and on-going retail fit-outs.
Describing progress at T5 Douglas tells CJ: "We are very pleased with how the project has progressed. On a traditional project you would never have made as much progress as we have now by using prefabrication and modern methods of construction. I take a great amount of pride in this project."
But despite claiming the project was ahead of schedule he refused to state by how much and reiterated that T5 would not open earlier than the 2008 target date.
"I have no intention of opening early. Logistically, we are in a strong position on the project at the moment and are beating our targets and milestones. What I can say is that we are making
history here." <25A0>