Partner Article

SES wins £18m MEP contract on Quadram Institute

Leading national engineering specialist, SES Engineering Services, which is based in Yorkshire, has secured an £18m contract to deliver full mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) services as part of a state-of-the-art £75m food and health research laboratory project, the Quadram Institute, in Norwich.

The landmark purpose-built 14,000sqm development will create a new focal point at the Norwich Research Park - one of Europe’s largest single-site concentrations of research in food, health and environmental sciences.

The five-storey building will create an integrated clinical and research space to accommodate 400 scientists and clinicians, bringing together research teams from the Institute of Food Research (IFR), the University of East Anglia as well as Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Working alongside lead contractor Wates Construction, SES will be responsible for the design from stage 4b onwards, installation and commissioning of all MEP services across this highly-complex project.

The Quadram Institute will contain a variety of specialist laboratories, lecture theatres and offices, and will also feature an endoscopy suite. Photovoltaic panels and ground source heat pumps have also been incorporated into the building design to enhance energy efficiency.

The building is due to be complete and ready for final handover in March 2018, after essential stringent tests, commissioning procedures with high quality control have been conducted, leaving no room for error and a very significant challenge to programme timescales.

SES’ appointment to this project reflects their proven expertise in delivering critical and technically-complex science and research projects including their experience gained from the £47m M&E project at The Pirbright Institute in Surrey, a world leading high level containment facility, an unparalleled technical accomplishment.

Set to house more than 400 staff and see more than 40,000 endoscopy procedures carried out annually, the Quadram Institute is to deliver a step change for food and health research and spearhead research into innovative healthy food products and therapies.

Given the technical accuracy required on the project and its location in the centre of a busy science park, SES is set to maximise the use of its dedicated offsite prefabrication Prism facility.

Proven to deliver outstanding cost and time saving benefits as well as major logistical and health and safety benefits, Prism will be fundamental to the delivery of more than 150 M&E services modules, risers and plantroom skids.

Tim Cunningham, SES Regional Director, London and South East commented: “The work of the Quadram Institute will be vital and visionary and we are extremely proud to have been appointed to bring our expertise of delivering exemplary science and research engineering to this project.

“As you would expect, given the science and research industry’s crucial role as a key facilitator of UK economic growth, the new laboratory and research facilities will be truly world-class.

“With a project of this size and technical complexity, absolute precision is critical. In order to ensure all validation and commissioning standards are met, our team is committed to a ‘right first time’ approach and have already adopted a collaborative ‘one team’ approach alongside all project partners.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by SES .