Cablofil celebrates princely project completion in Poundbury
The new Dorset Fire & Rescue Service headquarters and local fire station in Poundbury has been completed, including the installation of more than 1.5 km of Cablofil steel wire tray to accommodate the buildings' current and future cabling needs.
Built as part of a £110 million PFI project to update the Fire Service's facilities in Dorset, the Poundbury project has followed the sustainability and aesthetic aims set out for the town originally conceived as the 'urban extension to Dorchester'. The scheme was designed with the personal involvement of HRH Prince Charles's architectural consultant, and M&E Consultant, Gifford & Partners, specified steel wire tray for all the containment from the outset.
Explains Steve Raddon from the project's M&E contractor, Beale & Cole: "Not only does steel wire tray use fewer raw materials than perforated steel tray but, because it is so much lighter, it also reduces the project's carbon footprint in terms of transporting materials to site. We needed a steel wire tray supplier that could offer us a quality product at the right cost and, importantly, one that could guarantee an efficient supply chain for the range of tray sizes we would need for this complex installation. We have used Cablofil many times before, we know the product and are confident about availability."
The installation of the containment took just three months, thanks to the speed and flexibility of the Cablofil system. Across the two adjoining buildings, the installation team used more than 1,600 metres of tray in three metre lengths for containment of all low voltage power cabling, data cabling and cabling for the buildings' security systems, public address system and fire alarm. In some areas of the building, the Beale & Cole team had to install up to 600 individual cables to service the buildings' massive data requirements, using two rows of containment side by side to accommodate them: a containment infrastructure that futureproofs the installation to allow for additional data cabling requirements in years to come.
Carl Brambarni from Cablofil adds: "Installation of all containment, including cabling, on the Poundbury HQ and fire station job took just under three months. When you consider that there was a 12-man team on site during this period, the savings made by reducing the installation times can be calculated by the day!"
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