The project concerned the plant room of a student accommodation block at University College London which required emergency replacement works due to one of the boilers and the combined heat and power (CHP) system no longer functioning. There was a high risk of total failure if they were not quickly replaced, as the building’s hot water and heating supply was now being provided by the sole remaining boiler.
The client appointed Barker’s services in:
• Contract management to ensure suitable protections were in place between all parties;
•Cost consultancy to ensure value for money throughout the project;
•Project monitoring to ensure the works were in line with the contractor’s submitted programme; and
•Principal Designer role which required the management and co-ordination of all health & safety requirements at pre-construction phase and during the works.
The main challenge was the extremely short notice in which Barker and the Principal Contractor (Blu-3 Ltd) were appointed due to the urgency of delivering heat and hot water to the block’s residents. As the Principal Designer of the project, it was vital that all the contractor’s documentation and site management was in place in time to comply with the CDM Regulations and contracts were quickly drawn up ahead of commencement of the project.
Despite the strict timescale, Blu-3 and Barker were able to successfully deliver the project on time with an improved boiler and Building Management System and associated items which provided added value compared to the previous systems in place, with only a 5% increase to the contract sum.
“The project team did a great job.”
University College London
