We continue our series looking at the work of the ECA and its members with a closer look at a few of the many ambitious projects undertaken in the Greater London area.

If you need proof that there’s a wealth of development work going on in Greater London, all you need do is spot the scaffolding it’s everywhere, writes Mal Conby, ECA Greater London regional manager.

Opportunities for new business both in the city centre and further afield have gathered pace in the last year, and there is now an air of optimism among the region’s contractors.

Probably the most talked-about project is the Olympics. In 2012 the world’s attention will be fixed on London as it hosts the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the focus of the project is to provide a sustainable legacy that will serve London long after the event has finished.

The scale of the construction project is enormous. It involves the regeneration of east London and the creation of a 500-acre Olympic Park that will house the Olympic Village, a state-of-the-art media centre and 9000 homes. The project is expected to provide firms of all sizes with opportunities to compete for up to 50 000 contracts.

Another immense project providing opportunities for contractors is the Thames Gateway, one of Europe’s largest regeneration schemes.

This covers an area of more than 80 000 hectares, stretching from Tower Bridge, through large parts of east London, into Essex and Kent and out to the Thames Estuary.

Plans are in place to build 160,000 new homes by 2016. These will be much needed if the city’s population continues to soar by 700 000 people by 2016 as expected.

The region is also placing great importance on improving the standard of its existing homes. A total of 33 London boroughs have now signed up to the Decent Homes Standard, which aims to bring every council home in a borough up to scratch by 2010.

With this much work going on in the region, it’s little wonder that contractors in Greater London are reporting a noticeable increase in business. For the immediate future this looks set to continue.

Project file

Safe hands at Heathrow

A family-owned business from Enfield has been helping BAA achieve an exceptional safety record on one of Europe’s largest construction projects Terminal 5 at Heathrow.

Crosby Electrical Services has been working at Heathrow for more than three years, providing specialist temporary electrical engineering solutions for site power, lighting and fire alarm systems to T5B, a satellite to the main terminal building and a multi-million-pound project in its own right.

When BAA set up a health and safety committee for T5B, consisting of representatives from its major suppliers, Crosby’s Phil Rayment took on the role of chairman and became the worker representative on the site’s safety leadership team.

As a result of the work of both teams, T5B became the first section of the T5 project to achieve one million safe working hours without a reportable accident. Phil Rayment’s contribution resulted in him winning the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) ‘Working well together’ award as the number one site worker of the year.

The Heathrow T5 project includes three huge terminal buildings, as well as aircraft stands, bridges, 13.5 km of road and railway tunnels and associated infrastructure on the 251 hectare site. The first passengers are scheduled to use the terminal in spring 2008.

Victory on the Thames
In April, T Clarke completed a major project, working alongside Bovis Lend Lease, to rebuild the main structure of a 1930s building while retaining its grade 2-listed facade.

Standing on the north bank of the River Thames near Blackfriars Bridge, 100 Victoria Embankment is an imposing curved structure. Commissioned in the 1930s, the building ended up as the headquarters for Anglo-Dutch company Unilever.

Although architecturally stunning on the outside, internally the original building presented an impractical space, with various segregated areas that did not lend themselves to modern office life.

Unilever decided to demolish almost three-quarters of the original structure, while leaving the facade standing. It was then rebuilt from the back up.

T Clarke managed all electrical installation work under the project management of Charlie Cork.

That’s entertainment
The former site of the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, south east London, has been transformed into the UK’s most technically advanced music, sport and entertainment destination O2.

ECA contractors Titan Fire and Security from Uxbridge and T Clarke were both involved.

Titan contributed to visitor safety by designing and installing Gent Vigilon analogue addressable fire detection and Wagner air-sampling systems inside the venue’s Performance Wall a giant video screen delivering information on events at the complex.

T Clarke supplied and installed the electrical and data equipment, and also the entertainment and arena concessions packages.

This involved around 50 miles of submain cables, two 2·5 MVA high-voltage generators, 18 package substations and 12 000 luminaires. At peak times about 280 operatives were on site.

O2 opened its doors in June and houses a 20 000-capacity arena, Indigo, a 2350-capacity live music venue and an exhibition centre.

Surrounding the arena is the Entertainment Avenue, an area packed with restaurants, bars, cafes and an 11-screen multiplex cinema.

Virgin’ on the huge side
From its Southern Division base in Slough, building services company SES has undertaken the electrical and mechanical work on Virgin Atlantic’s newly opened flight-crew training centre in Crawley, West Sussex.

The state-of-the-art training centre is an impressive sight. Occupying around 19 000 m2, it houses three training rigs. These are vast halls containing full-sized mock aircraft fuselages and cockpits, complete with full-height escape chutes, emergency exits and rafts.

Contracted by HBS and architect Parnell Design Partnership, SES undertook all the electrical and mechanical work on the project. This included the provision of a complex IT infrastructure for an on-line library and the installation of access control and security systems.

Senior SES project engineer Kevin Delaney says: “The sheer scale and nature of this project made it very unusual to work on. The centre has been built to accommodate up to 1900 people at one time, so that gives you some idea of its size.

“The centre houses 50 classrooms, an auditorium and a range of ancillary facilities including a fully operational hair and beauty salon, staff shop, cafe, Open Learning Centre, kitchen and restaurant.

“There was a broad range of electrical and mechanical work required across the site.”

A capital idea

With more than seven million people living in London that’s around 12% of the UK’s population it is perhaps not surprising that the ECA’s Greater London region represents 12% of its total membership.

The region manages more than 315 member companies from its office in Romford, Essex, and has three branches in Croydon, south-west Essex and London. Members range from huge multinationals to sole traders, with a combined turnover of around £2.3bn.

At the helm is regional manager Mal Conby, assisted by Diana Barrett and Emma Horwood. Together, the team offers members a wide range of services including seminars, conferences and regular business events, as well as an array of social, charity and networking functions.

Source

Electrical and Mechanical Contractor