Diamond life

The Diamond Synchrotron complex is aptly designed for a building housing space age technology. A giant, silver hoop in the Chilton science campus in south Oxfordshire, it looks more like an alien spaceship than a research building.

“The whole purpose of the building is to house the machine and provide the right environment for the machine,” explains Alex Buckley, project manager for m&e contractor Haden Young.

Installation of this machine – a synchrotron, or particle accelerator – has now begun and the building construction is virtually complete. It represents the largest scientific investment by the UK government for 30 years and comprises the latest technology in this field. Laboratories within the facility will be leased to industry and academic scientists from worldwide to carry out specialist experiments in areas such as electronics, pharmaceuticals and materials science (see ‘The Diamond story’, over).

The building has been given a futuristic feel with an aluminium clad, steel-framed structure. The different areas of the development emanate out from the centre of the building in irregular, circular layers. Each layer is clearly separate to (but dependent on) the adjacent areas.

Bulging into the centre hole in the building ring is the technical services area, which comprises the main m&e services plant. This feeds into a distribution ring that runs around the inner circumference of the building. “All the distribution services which emanate from the technical services building go into a ring main around the centre so we can feed out to the different sections of the storage ring,” explains Buckley. Running around this is a ‘layer’ of central information areas; these are control rooms for the adjacent areas of the machine that are being installed in the concrete storage ring, the next layer. Outside of these are the experimental hall, and finally a ring of laboratories, offices and central services.

It’s all part of the process

Haden Young was employed as m&e contractor to install and commission the services for the building and provide base services for the synchrotron machine. It won the contract in competitive tender from main contractor Costain.

The base design was already completed, but the firm carried out the detailed services design and provided the engineering solutions needed for the installation (see ‘Completing the circle, opposite). Haden’s early involvement in the construction process was crucial to the success of logistics on site.

The contractor’s role was to provide a service structure that could produce and maintain a controlled environment throughout all areas of the facility, varying from offices to high-tech experimental labs. For the main building this included the power, lighting, air conditioning and voice and data system. For the specialist client areas such as the storage ring and experimental hutches, the contractor has created a distribution system for the services, onto which the specialist contractors can make their final connections when required.

“The machine is highly dependent on process cooling for the dissipation of heat during operation,” states Buckley. “Cooling water and process water is a significant part of the process.” To cater for this, four 2·7 MW York chillers have been installed to provide the primary chilled water. This is used via heat exchangers to provide the process water that cools the machine; it also supplies the air handling units to cool the surrounding environment.

A farm of 20 Alpha Laval blast air coolers provide condenser water to service the chillers: any heat picked up from the systems is removed at this point.

The electrical use at the facility is secondary to the cooling. “Energy consumption for the generation of the particles is very small,” explains Buckley. “It’s the controlling of these particles and the power needed to keep the machine cool that create the power consumption.”

To provide the required 11 kV power supply to the former greenfield site, a temporary main from the Harwell substation has been tapped into and split into three 11 kV ring mains. One ring supplies the technical services building; a second provides an inner ring, primarily for the machine; the third provides an outer ring that supplies four hv substations around the perimeter. The substations effectively serve one-quarter of the building each.

Getting organised

The vastness of the site, timescales and number of individual elements involved meant preplanning and co-ordination between the construction team members was vital. The engineering precision needed to install in a circular building, the critical criteria of the environment and the need to work alongside the people installing the synchrotron made the process even more complex.

“It was deliberately planned that we’d be in same office block [as the rest of the construction team] and working alongside Costain from the beginning,” Buckley explains. Haden Young brought most of its disciplines to site, creating a fully autonomous office for the design and installation, but with offsite support from its main offices when needed.

Strategy meetings were held before arriving on site to determine how each area should be approached – what could be modularised, for example – and a schedule of works was completed.

“It was a major logistics job because of the volume of equipment that had to be brought in,” stresses Buckley. Much of the large plant was brought to site and installed early in the construction process. At this stage a section of the building remained open as an access point, so prefabricated pipe racks, chillers etc could be driven through and delivered to position. Once the building was complete the remaining plant was craned into the building and moved into position using permanent overhead cranes in the experimental hall. To maximise health and safety, the firm employed a specialist moving contractor at this stage.

Haden Young employed an average of 150 operatives on the project including subcontractors, with a management team of 16. The sequencing of the installation was carried out to suit the client needs as Buckley explains: “The job was split into four quadrants and these prioritised to meet the way Diamond needed the availability of services and the installation of the machine.”

The Diamond team and its specialist subcontractors began installation of the machine, erection of the experimental hutches and connection of the m&e services to the machine in concurrent contracts, with different contractors to the main building construction. “There’s a lot of interface needs to go on in terms of site logistics and running those contracts at the same time,” stresses Buckley. Regular meetings were held with Diamond, the main contractor, designers and relevant project managers to ensure smooth co-ordination, with Costain in overall charge of the logistics programme.

“You need to be a lot closer to the designers and end client on a project like this because you’re working with cutting-edge technology and you’ve got to be sure you’re delivering. You’ve got the drawings, but they can only give you so much information; you’ve really got to work hard alongside the client to deliver all the solutions that’ll give them the end product they need,” he stresses.

Haden Young is due to complete its installation by the end of 2005, but its role will continue until the machine is fully installed and tested. Buckley explains: “We have to bring the systems to commission and normally that would be the end of our contract. Here we must maintain those services while they are interfaced with the machine. So until final completion there will be a period of hand-holding.” Then the real tests can begin.