BSF News

This week our progress has been less tangible than in previous weeks as it has been primarily about services, which are generally hidden from sight or suspended at high level.

When you think about buildings they have not changed much in structure for hundreds of years; even a Neolithic cave had walls and a roof. What has changed are the services inside to make our lives more comfortable. The first plumbers were the romans who added central heating and sewers to their dwellings. Despite this early development, heating remained generally from a direct fire and water provision and waste disposal via manually fetching and carrying for at least another 1000 years. Then during the industrial revolution more and more homes began to have hot and cold running water , piped sewage systems and lighting via gas, heating was still mainly from direct sources (e.g. fires, but piped systems using hot water to heat rooms remote from the fire using a boiler were introduced). With the advent of electricity yet more cables and ducts had to be hidden away within the fabric of our buildings to allow us to use labour saving devices around the home. Now with computers, and security and entertainment systems, the extent of cabling is even greater.

If you look around your classroom and think of all the services you use you can begin to see the amount of work required in fitting out the new classrooms and disconnecting services from the rooms to be demolished without affecting the rest of the College.

Services include:

• Electricity for lights.
• Electricity for power sockets.
• Electricity for heating
• Electricity to power ventilation plant (Air Handling Units in the Sports Hall)
• Telephone cables
• Data Cables
• Fire Alarm cables
• Class Change Bell (known as PA, Public address) cables
• Access Control (Magnetic Locks on Doors) cables
• Intercom Cables
• Security Alarm Cables
• Gas pipe work for heating the boilers
• Gas pipework for Science Class rooms
• Hot water pipes to heat the radiators
• Hot water for washing
• Cold water for washing and drinking
• Drains to remove rain water
• Drains to remove waste water
• Vents to draw in air
• Flues to allow waste gasses to escape
• Can you think of any more?

What’s been going on

The permanent drain to take waste water from the new school has been laid under the new play area.

The foundations for Classrooms 38 & 39 to be relocated have been completed and the area of the new playground levelled and rolled in preparation for tarmac surfacing.

The bases to the two new meter rooms to provide power to the new accommodation and diverted power to the sports hall have been constructed and the walls and roof will be completed next week. Before Easter UU should have completed their works and we will be in a position to implement the diverted power supplies.

The foundations for our temporary offices on the playing fields have been completed ready for cabin installation.

The data cables from the College server have been extended to a new cabinet in the new LRC and then networked out to all the new classrooms.

Inside the new classrooms the internal fit out continues, power and heating is now on and carpets laid and protected.

Inside the College we have removed all the fixtures, fittings and equipment from Classrooms 38 & 39 and opened up the joints between the units that make up the classrooms in preparation for moving them this week.

The services through the existing College have been adapted to allow them to be isolated from the parts of the building to be demolished. This has meant installing new pipework through some of the Science labs to ensure that the heating and water services remain live in the rooms not affected by the demolition.

We have also completed the final new access point to the new classrooms through what was the Science Prep room. Painting and decorating and external lighting will be complete this week.

Coming soon.

• New School Earthworks & Foundations

  Once you are all safely in place in the new classrooms we will move our main site access to the gates from the Public Right of Way at the rear of the school. The rear play areas will be fenced off and we will put in place all the setting out and level controls needed to start work on the foundations on Section 1 of the new build the Music, MFL, Maths and English.

• Completion of Service diversions.

  This week we will complete all the diversions required to allow demolition to progress.

• Demolition of the Existing Hall & Library and English Blocks.

  Whilst service diversions are completed we will be carrying out surveys to assess the existing structure. This is to ensure that we put in place a safe method of demolition, providing support where necessary to ensure that no additional forces are applied to the remaining parts of the building. Once the position of cuts within the structure have been confirmed we can complete planning of any measures required to ensure the remaining building remains watertight until you move to the new building in September 2011.

Regards,
John England – Carillion Project Manager