Gleeds acts as QS on air traffic control tower

Gleeds was the cost consultant on a new air traffic control tower at Royal Naval air station in Somerset. The £10m facility at Yeovilton was opened on 15 September by rear admiral Alan Massey, assistant chief of the Naval Staff.

Construction started in January 2005 and finished in February 2006. This was followed by six months of fit-out works. The building became fully operational in August.

The tower was the first project to be completed under Regional Prime Contract South West by a contracting joint venture between Bovis Lend Lease and Babcock Infrastructure Services called Debut Services (South West).

Debut said: "Due to the proximity of runways to the site it was vital to liaise closely with the existing air traffic control team and to coordinate all construction activities very carefully. Disruption had to be kept to a minimum... Operations on the airfield were maintained throughout construction works, which at one stage included directional drilling under the main and secondary runways."

The Regional Prime Contract South West is the second of five regional contracts to be let under the Prime Contracting initiative. The seven-year contract covers estate management services for almost 200 sites in the Southwest.

The new tower replaces a 52-year old building that had become out of date.

It provides radar services to both military and civil aircraft, and houses operational, meteorological and administrative functions.

The architect was CPMG, Faber Maunsell was the structural & M&E engineer, White Young Green was the engineering consultant and Debut brought in Bluestone as its main contractor.