This £1.5 million civil construction project is the second stage of a larger, multi-phase £6 million programme of electrical resilience work for Ashford & St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The initial phase was a NICU critical safety equipment upgrade undertaken in 2020 and 2021, which included new Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), new Isolated Power Supply (IPS), a new switch panel and new sub-station.
This stage – Phase 2 – took six months. Enabling works were finished in October 2022, while the construction elements were completed in January 2023 – undertaken in winter snowstorms with temperatures of down to -10°C.
As principal contractor, Barton Knight Contracting worked on the design (with Ridge and Partners LLP) and installation of this project, fitting the electrical equipment and co-ordinating the piling installation, the drains diversion, creation of a new stormwater drain and finally, the construction of a 500sqm concrete base for two new generators.
The base was fitted on a brownfield site adjacent to the main Outpatients department and Acute wards, so noise had to be kept to a minimum to avoid disruption to patients and staff. After trees and fences etc. were cleared from the site to make it accessible, 6 metre piles were pushed into the ground using
the virtually silent Giken Supercrush method where hydraulic press-in and augering takes place simultaneously. Conventional installation uses presses and/or vibratory or impact hammers to push the piling into the ground, and is much noisier.
For safety reasons a handrail was fitted on top of the piling, while containment to carry future supplies from the generator farm (to power a number of individual switchboards) was also installed. This included fitting multiple 900mm heavy duty ladder racking systems, which were craned in over the rooftops of neighbouring buildings.
Phase 3 of the resilience programme covers the supply, installation and commission of two T1650 – 1500kVA 400v 50Hz prime rated diesel generating sets, which will be fitted at St Peter’s Hospital later in 2023.
