Client: Wilmott Dixon
Customer: Liverpool John Moores University
Service: Mechanical and Electrical
Project value: £6.5m
Project completion: May 2021
Kimpton were awarded this project following an in-depth competitive tendering process undertaken by the main site contractor, Willmott Dixon. Following the award of the contract, a 12-month pre-construction exercise was also completed. The final value of the project to Kimpton was £6.5m, demonstrating our capacity to deliver large scale projects in both mechanical and electrical work.
The project involved the design, supply, installation, & commissioning of full mechanical, electrical, and plumbing works throughout the buildings. On-site operations began, following a design process in conjunction with Willmott Dixon’s own team.
There were several sections to the contract, including refurbishment to both occupied and unoccupied buildings, along with the construction of a new build extension to one of the buildings within the site boundaries. Kimpton were responsible for all aspects of the M&E works although there was considerable use of local supply chain partners for speciality trades such as ventilation, electrical works, & BMS.
The project including the installation of a rooftop plant room, with air handling and chiller units mounted onto bespoke frames. This involved a 25m vertical crane lift to deliver the units to the roof space.
There are also two plant rooms. One on the ground floor for chilled water, with a buffer vessel for the chilled water to avoid the roof-mounted chiller unit running constantly. This chilled water feeds the cooling systems throughout the buildings.
The basement plant room houses the boilers. There are nine individual 250kW boilers, linked to three expansion vessels, delivering a total 2.25mW of heating power. These were all lifted downwards through a light well and wheeled by hand on pallet trucks into the boiler room.
The pipework was lagged throughout with insulation sections for minimisation of heat loss and finished with aluminium cladding and valve insulation bags.
The final aspect is a gas-fired Andrews Water Heater to supply the hot water to the site. This is all supported by a central control system for easy management and operation.
This is a large scale plant room. It was purpose-designed for maximum efficiency overall. It allows us good access for future Planned Preventative maintenance and despite the slightly limited access, there is plenty of circulation and with a 5″ gas inlet, allows us plenty of expansion space for the future.
One of Kimpton’s most experienced contract managers, Paul Cooper, managed the project on-site, from when the award was made and ensured the whole M&E provision progressed to schedule, despite the challenges that operating a site throughout the COVID crisis brought.
Paul was supported by an Electrical Project Manager and three SSSTS Supervisors ensuring that day-to-day operations went according to plan. All five of the above were based on-site within the Willmott Dixon offices, which facilitates easier communication between teams. Daily operational updates were held to discuss the previous day’s activities and schedule work for upcoming days.
With our team on site reaching a peak of 70 engineers (including subcontractor staff) during the project, weekly site meetings also provided higher-level input into overall planning and scheduling.
Two of the subcontractors we worked with are based in Liverpool and one based in Queensferry but employing local staff for the electrical works, contributing to the social value being driven via the contract. In terms of the supply chain, we also drove local spend through the use of Liverpool depots for materials, principally on the mechanical works side to ensure mileage is minimised.
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