Knights Brown was appointed for the design and build of the civil infrastructure and portal frame building associated with a 20MW STOR gas generator power station. The design had to incorporate very specific, and ever changing, requirements imposed by the acoustic, mechanical and electrical structures and assets to be installed (design by others). The design had to be sympathetic to the neighbouring landowners, with close proximity to a busy industrial estate, a residential area and a railway line running parallel to the site boundary.

SUMMARY OF WORKS:

• Site preparation and earthworks (including gas main excavation)
• Strip foundations and reinforced concrete slab for: main portal frame building; transformer bund; radiator bund; switch room and control room
• Steel portal frame building with cladding and roofing, with high acoustic properties and multiple penetrations for exhausts and attenuators
• Over 1000m on site ducting and 100m offsite trench works for incoming services
• Drainage works
• External surfacing
• Palisade and paladin fencing – suitable for electrification
• Provision of the control room, workshop and associated steel support frames

The project was located on a contaminated brownfield site, polluted with hydrocarbons, heavy metals and asbestos. We undertook a site investigation, excavating a multitude of trial holes across the site, this allowed particular hotspots to be isolated and the hazardous waste separated from the less hazardous material, leading to a more efficient classification of spoil, and a cost saving that was passed onto the client.

On this project multiple party collaborative working was an essential tool in the delivering the programme as efficiently as possible. Weekly progress meetings were held to develop detailed look ahead programmes, enabling both our contractors and our customer’s contractors to work closely with each other, both safely and without delays. The results of this were then reinforced with daily safe start briefings undertaken with all operatives on site, where potential clashes can be discussed with the foremen on site prior to any issues evolving.

During the design phase Building Information Modelling (Navisworks) was incorporated on the scheme to enable us to find clashes between the civil infrastructure and any mechanical/electrical design. As a result of this work we were able to prevent issues during the construction phase, ensuring that the scheme ran to programme.