The big chill

It’s cold in Manchester. Yet, even though the rainy city is hardly renowned for its glorious weather, I never envisaged myself wading through snow half a metre thick, frostbite threatening my toes and icicles forming on anything that dares to remain stationary for more than an hour.

Mammoth ice-capped mountains stretch ominously into the distance. It’s not quite what you expect to see on the outskirts of an industrial park in England’s North West. Perhaps I must have taken a wrong turning somewhere off the M60?

Evidently, Chill Factore is much more than an indoor ski centre. With actual snow and the biggest slope in the country, it aims to mimic as closely as possible the experience of an authentic skiing trip, and for little more than the price of a couple of cinema tickets.

The complex also houses a nursery slope for beginners. And if you’re not so steady on your feet, hurtling down a luge track feet first on a mat is thrilling stuff. Then there’s always the toboggan run, along with a snow play area for children with igloos and slides.

For those who enjoy the après-ski, Chill Factore houses a host of restaurants and a rather swanky bar, complete with balcony overlooking the slope action. And if by this point you’re not completely pooped, a mock alpine village offers up the choice of 16 shopping outlets.

The cold light of day

The ambience is impressive. A painted Alpine backdrop adorns the walls and ceilings of what those in the know refer to as the cold room. Connect2, the electrical engineers on this extraordinary project, even used blue sleeves on the fluorescents to give the impression of cool white light. The overall lighting scheme, which replicates real daylight, was designed by electrical consultant Hulley & Kirkwood. Connect2’s regular supplier, Light Distribution, provided the fittings.

However, everything didn’t run entirely smoothly on the lighting side for the Connect2 team.

“The client, Xscape Leisure, kept changing their minds about what fittings they wanted, and extra lighting was specified, but we weren’t given any extra time on the contract,” explains project manager Mark Barry. “The timescale was an issue. We were still having design meetings up until very late on.”

The electrical installation, which began in February, was due for completion on 2 November, and the centre was set to open on the 16th. Despite the lighting modifications, and an eight-week hold-up due to a design change on the steelwork, at time of going to press Barry was confident that the project would be completed on time, although not to the original budget. The contract was initially worth £1.1 million, but had risen to £1.5 million.

One of the main challenges Connect2 faced was the 10° angle of the ski slope, which led to access problems. “We had to get in spider machines so we could carry out tasks such as fitting the lighting,” says Barry. “We had about 20 of them inside at one point. Everything had to be anchored off, and it was a bit of a nightmare.”

Cable capers

The project was a unique one for Connect2 because of the freezing environment. The team used transit systems in areas where cable installations penetrated from the cold arena to warmer areas such as the reception and restaurant. In addition, a trace-heating system was installed to prevent condensation and icicles forming on the steelwork.

Connect2 used Cablofil’s steel wire tray cable management system throughout the project, eliminating the need for bespoke components or specialist tools.

“It’s a very quick and easy system to put in. It has a lot of fast-fix accessories, and it’s easier than tray. We use it on most projects these days,” explains Barry.

In excess of 3000 m of Cablofil tray has been used within the complex for mains cabling, voice and data services and fire and security alarm systems.

The majority of the tray has been installed above false ceilings, but some had to be surface-mounted on walls and ceilings. One of Chill Factore’s attractions is the real snow that is blasted out from the ceiling onto skiers as they enjoy the slope. A traditional system would involve snow getting caught on the tray.

“With Cablofil’s open structure, the snow will fall through the tray much more easily, removing this potential hazard,” says Barry.

Connect2 also installed a public address system, as well as providing cabling for the centre’s ski lifts and two travellators.

The team had a strong relationship with main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine, with site meetings between the contractors and design team taking place every two weeks. The design team used 3D models to help visualise the end result.

Snowed under

Strongs headed the mechanical side of the project in a design-and-build contract, subcontracting the heating and ventilation within the centre’s warm areas to Morcool, who fitted conventional systems including VRV air conditioning in the restaurant and bar.

The cold area was fitted out by Derby-based refrigeration specialist Cryotech Systems, with real-snow-centre expert Acer Snowmech on hand as consultant.

“The slope area is essentially a massive cold store, insulated with panels that are about five inches thick,” explains Cryotech contracts engineer Steve Travis.

Chilling is mainly provided by two packaged chiller units manufactured by Grasso. These use ammonia as a primary and glycol as a secondary refrigerant. Cold glycol is pumped along the floor throughout the insulated enclosure, feeding a floor matrix similar to that found within an ice rink. The glycol then travels up to feed the room’s 14 blast coolers, which were manufactured by Coolers and Condensers and keep the temperature down to about 1°C or 2°C during the day. Temperatures drop to -6°C on a nightly basis when a fresh 5 mm covering of snow is being formed (see diagram, over).

A separate snow-forming system uses compressed air and chilled water. These are pumped into a patented snow gun supplied by Acer Snowmech. The gun sprays out vapour, which hits the -6°C air and changes state, falling as natural snow.

“Everyone thinks that the guns spray out actual snow, but that’s not the case,” says Travis. “It’s a bit of a misnomer.”

The landed gantry

Chill Factore is the third UK snow centre project Cryotech has worked on. Travis has also lent his chilling expertise to the Xscape centres in Castleford, West Yorkshire, and Glasgow.

“Everyone catches a cold in some respect on their first snow centre or ski slope, because projects of this type are rare. But we knew the main pitfalls involved this time, and we tried to get everything up at high level at a very early stage in the contract,” explains Travis.

“The blast coolers are about five metres high and a couple of metres deep. They’re big units, so we arrange them all on a gantry which runs all the way down the slope.”

The gantry was delivered to Cryotech’s headquarters in 30 sections, onto which the team attached blasters and pipework. The gantries were then delivered to the site, lifted up on cranes, along with the main steelwork, and bolted together.

“There aren’t many machines knocking about that could lift that sort of weight on that gradient, which is why everything had to be lifted in kit form up onto the gantry segments,” says Travis.

“Then we had to go up and weld all the pipework together and basically take the protective covering off the blast coolers,” he adds. “Generally, services get involved when the building envelope’s done, so this was a long job.”

Overall, it certainly has been a well-orchestrated feat, and I’m sure I could stand here talking about it all day if my lips hadn’t turned a disconcerting shade of blue… I wonder how much those igloos go for on the Manchester property market?