Works at Swinton Civic Centre compromised of the refurbishment of several building existing open plan offices, meeting rooms, toilets, corridors, lift lobbies, staircases, reception areas and galley kitchens. These buildings included the Civic Centre, Unity House and the Innovation Centre.
As the works was to a live and operational facility, ensuring no disruption to the staff and visitors was priority. Works were completed in small phases allowing us to move staff into the newly refurbished rooms and buildings, before commencing works in another area - this meant that their daily routines was not interupted and business carried on as normal. The project was split into five phases.
We issued notices to commence works to the client and our subcontractors in advance. This facilitated the smooth transition from one phase to the next without disturbing day to day operations during the construction phase.
During the works we had 20 operatives on site at any one time, we managed eight subcontractors and four of our own direct labour force.
Throughout the construction period our main challenge was managing the changes to programme and schedule of works at the clients request. This required us to record and log the changes, issue revised costings and undertake additional works throughout the programme. We mitigated this through our Site Manager and Quantity Surveyor working collaboratively alongside the Change Request Manager at Salford City Council.
We undertook weekly site meetings to monitor progress and ensure programme milestones were achieved along with quality inspections.
We built a good relationship with the stakeholders, client, Contract Administrator and Contracts Manager that we met daily to ensure collaboration with the constant changing of programme and scope of works. This enabled us to streamline all changes.
The subcontractors was engaged in a ‘pre-contract interview’ which is a standard Seddon procedure; this ensures that all expectations, standards and terms are agreeable in advance of placing an order, and that the programme and scope of works is clear and understood by all.
Daily coordination meetings were held to ensure continuity of works were achieved with the changing scope throughout the project.
Environmental impact key points:
• All waste was removed from site and disposed of at our recycling waste station
• Our in house Site Teams and subcontractors all participated in vehicle sharing
• We were able to monitor traveling distances of everyone on site due to our Signing in and out sheets which meant we could calculate the Co2 produced and aim to offset this throughout the project life-cycle
• Environmentally friendly materials procured via our sustainable procurement policy, where it was allowed, as we also had to conform to the clients specification.
We host various internal awards throughout the year to commend sites, projects and staff. During our prestigious excellence awards in 2022, the Swinton Civic Centre received the Painting and Maintenance Project of the Year Award, this was awarded after a site achievement submission was entered and voted through our board. The site won the award for the Quality, Health and Safety and Collaborative Working.
Evidence of successful delivery:
These works were procured through the Salford City Council framework which we are allocated to.
A key element within the framework is consistently achieving on the key performance indicators as specified by Salford City Council.
For this particular project we achieved:
• achieving practical completion both on time and within budget
• using the local supply chain, we used Dulux Salford on this project
• used one apprentice throughout the project
• all direct labour including the apprentice were from the local area
• all subcontractors used were local to Salford
• zero accidents, RIDDORs or near misses on site throughout the duration of the project
• zero defects upon completion
The works once completed meant that the client had more efficient products within the office spaces which will help the client reduce energy bills. The newly refurbished work environments helped encourage the clients workforce to return to the office as the workspace created a more comfortable environment.
