At the project review board meeting held on 12th March, work completed then as per the plan included the following:
- Completion of the Asbestos Survey
- Started installation of the scaffold
- Asbestos removal & containment in the plant room
- All long lead time plant and equipment has been ordered including the AHU (Air Handling Unit), the Chillers, and the BMS (Building Management System that controls the temperature and air flow)
- The order for the crane & the traffic management company has been placed, based on proposed delivery dates of the roof plant and subject to approval from Westminster City Council.
Since setting-up the scaffold on the back of the building, work is progressing both in the basement as well as on the roof top, according to the following time-plan:
- Decommission of basement chillers
- Decommission of Cooling Tower
- Removal of redundant plant from plantroom
- Modifications to Cooling circuit
- Completion of External Scaffold
- New power feed installation from plant room to roof
- Decommission of AHU (End of March/Early April)
- Pipework Alterations in plantroom
What comes next?
The key milestone which the preliminary works need to be completed is determined the date on which the crane will be erected to remove the old plant equipment from the building’s rood and lift the new chillers, AHU and BMS to be installed on the roof. This is planned to take place on 22nd May and will require closing Great Cumberland Place to transit traffic. That date would need to be postponed if very inclement weather and particularly strong wind are forecasted on that date. Alternative dates are planned as a backup plan, but as the road closure needs to take place over a weekend, any replanning of the crane would delay the project 1, 2 or 3 weeks.
Keeping track of progress
The Project Review Board will meet again on 23rd April, with a view of comparing work delivered versus plan, usage of contingency funds, and latest estimates regarding costs and completion dates for this first phase of the project. In terms of costs, the only remaining uncertainty relates to the removal of the asbestos located on the roof under the Air Handling Unit. This is included in the budget, as an estimate, but the exact extent of that work cannot be assessed until the current Air Handling Unit is dismounted and removed. As of the last Project Review Board meeting, the contingency built into the budget appeared to be adequate.