A remote containerised boiler room was among solutions deployed by Scott & Ewing Ltd to ensure heat and water supplies were uninterrupted during construction work to create Northern Ireland’s first shared education campus.
Involving alteration and extension works totalling 5,400sqft to the adjacent sites of Limavady High School and St Mary’s High School, the £7.8m project got underway in April 2021, with classes and activities for 1,400 students ongoing amid construction. The project required close, regular contact with principals of the two schools to ensure they were kept up to date with the works programme. And further complicating the timeline and logistics was a mid-project visit by former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as part of the 25th anniversary Good Friday Agreement celebrations.
Works were carried out in two distinct phases, commencing at Limavady High School, where the front of the school was demolished to create a new entrance, office accommodation, staff rooms and STEM building. Adjoining science and general classrooms on the ground floor were also upgraded. Services to the new and upgraded rooms were extended beyond the previous provision with the addition of new CAT5 water supplies and appropriate plant installed in the existing boiler house.
New BMS controls were installed to control the new extension and upgraded accommodation. Raymond Scott, Contract Manager at Scott & Ewing Ltd, said, “As we were working essentially in a live school environment, great care, forward planning and co-ordination were required to maintain heat and water supplies at all times. “Connections into the existing systems were planned for school holidays and particular liaison with the main contractor and electrical contractor was essential in this regard.”
A second phase of the project, focused on St Mary’s High School, included demolition work to the front of the existing building to prepare the site for a new STEM extension and additional general classrooms. An existing boiler house serving the right-hand side of the school was located in the area being demolished, leaving large portions of the school without heat and hot water.
“We overcame this difficulty by providing a remote containerised boiler room, containing a 300KW oil-fired boiler and a mains-fed 1000L DHW calorifier to cater for heat and hot water requirements,” said Raymond. “Also fed from this boiler house were temporary supplies for the gym/multipurpose hall, which had also been cut off during demolitions.” Within the extension, a new boiler house serving both the extension and right-hand side of the existing school was built. Once commissioned, the temporary remote boiler plant was removed.
“All permanent and temporary works were completed with no interruption to school supplies during term time,” said Raymond. Scott & Ewing Ltd worked alongside the main contractor Woodvale Construction Company Ltd to prioritise health and safety, achieving their target of zero accidents on site. The project was delivered under a NEC 3 Engineering and Construction Contract, Option B with priced bill of quantities.
The pioneer project in the Department for Education’s Shared Education Campuses Programme launched in 2014, LSEC was awarded Fresh Start Programme funding in 2016, with the completed campus opening its doors in September 2023. Founded in 1969 by Desmond Scott and the late Philip Ewing, Scott & Ewing Ltd is a leading mechanical contractor with a broad portfolio of projects across sectors such as education, health and restoration. It has established a reputation for delivering cost-effective and sustainable solutions on time, safely and to high standards.
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