Business is looking up for South Wales with the announcement of some major new contracts, reports ECA South Wales regional manager Lawrence Andrews.

It was recently confirmed that a huge new military training academy will be built at RAF St Athan. The £14.5 billion project is expected to be completed by 2012 and will result in an estimated 5500 new jobs and many new homes.

The project will be one of the largest ever seen in Wales, and is set to create in the region of 1000 temporary construction jobs.

Plans are also underway to build a new 30 000 seater stadium for Cardiff City Football Club. The ambitious project is worth an estimated £57 million.

Both projects are great wins for South Wales and are expected to have a substantial knock-on effect on the local infrastructure, generating more cash for the local economy.

Although much of the work will undoubtedly go to larger contractors, there will be ample opportunities for smaller companies to benefit from the local infrastructure work surrounding the St Athan development. Additionally, with larger firms engaged in the bigger jobs, it is anticipated that smaller contractors will be in hot demand for the more modest projects across South Wales.

The new projects will hopefully encourage more young people to take up a profession in the construction and electrical industry, as well as attracting new skilled workers to the area. This is welcome news considering South Wales has suffered a skills shortage in recent years. Research also suggests that more and more Welsh students are choosing to study in Wales, so our pool of home grown talent is surely set to grow.

Project file

Out of the Ashes
Whitehead Building Services recently began work on a major redevelopment programme destined to inspire a new generation of Welsh cricketers.

Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens cricket stadium is being transformed into a world class venue for an npower Ashes test match against Australia, due to be held in 2009.

Glamorgan Cricket Club won the right to host the match and is now embarking on a complete stadium revamp.

The project is valued at £9.3 million and will involve the construction of a 15 800 seat stadium. The pavilion will have 2660 seats and a control centre for international cricket.

Whitehead, which is based in Newport, will be working alongside main contractor Carillion to provide a complete m&e solution.

Rhys Morton, Whitehead’s director, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for us to build on the company’s growing reputation for building services of the highest quality.”


Supermarket sweep

A Cardiff-based firm has won a £1 million contract with international grocer Aldi.

SGD Baynton will be responsible for a major refurbishment of existing stores and the installation of electrics in seven new stores which are being built in South Wales.

The company won the contract as a result of a six-year maintenance partnership with Aldi.

“This is a major coup for the company,” said Stuart Dickie, managing director of SGD Baynton. “The contract will involve electrical work across the board from installing store lighting to fitting refrigeration units,” he added.

Aldi is planning approximately 90 new stores for South Wales, which are to be serviced from a new £30 million regional head office facility in Cardiff.

Old meets new

The conversion of a 19th century water tower into a state-of-the-art family home with smart technology has scooped the top award in Cardiff City Council’s Quality Award Scheme 2006 for new houses.

Originally constructed in 1898 for use as a pumping station for a covered reservoir, the grade II listed water tower in Cyncoed had been left abandoned for several decades.

In 2006, local companies Lyon & Co Architects and Monnow Construction set about transforming the tower into a luxurious home by adding a 2-storey L-shaped extension.

The new home features intelligent lighting, distributed multi-room audio and a home cinema system. Local company A Pearson Electrical installed the latest in European Installation Bus technology within the property.

Alun Pearson, managing director of A Pearson Electrical, explained: “We installed a multi-room system, which is linked to nearly every room in the tower and extension via in-wall keypads. This means you can listen to any connected audio or visual device virtually anywhere in the house simply by selecting it on the keypad or remote control and choosing your channel.” He added: “The EIB intelligent lighting allows you to control the lighting in any part of the house by means of a single touch panel or remote control.”

A Pearson Electrical has carried out maintenance contracts for Wales’ largest independent brewer S A Brain & Co over the last 18 years and also has many other blue chip clients carrying out day-to-day reactive maintenance, testing and inspections.

City regeneration

The transformation of Cardiff city into a chic centre for urban living has rarely been out of the South Wales news recently, but while the big developers, politicians and city commentators have been battling it out for headlines, one local company has just been getting on with the job in hand.

E J Honeybun may not be a name most people recognise, but the handy-work of this large Pontypridd-based electrical contractor can be found in many of the developments integral to Cardiff’s regeneration, including Redrow’s Altolusso building and Celestia development, the Landmark Place complex, and George Wimpey’s Water Quarter apartments.

In the past six years, the firm has in fact been responsible for carrying out the electrical installation work in over 2500 apartments in the Cardiff Bay area. And with more big developments in the pipeline, this figure can only be set to increase.

Flying the flag for South Wales

The ECA has had a presence in South Wales for over 30 years, and now has two branches: Cardiff and Newport, and Swansea and West Wales.

Geographically, these cover Aberystwyth down to the South Wales coast and as far east as Chepstow. North Wales is actually covered by the ECA’s North West office in Lymm, Cheshire.

Local membership has grown by 30% in the past five years, with the total number of members now standing at 150.
The region’s head office (Ty ESCA), which is based in Llanishen, Cardiff is run by regional manager Lawrence Andrews, ably assisted by Ceri Mathers.

The branch organises a full gamut of events for members all year round, including training courses, networking events, conferences and business mornings. It also holds health and safety assessments for members.

The Cardiff & Newport branch recently celebrated its 72nd annual charity dinner dance at Newport’s Celtic Manor Resort with 650 guests. Three local bright sparks received awards for outstanding performance on apprenticeship schemes.

Source

Electrical and Mechanical Contractor