The construction of ExCel, an exhibition centre one-and-a-half times larger than the Dome, is a mountainous task. Will Jones goes off-site to see how Drake & Scull is working to meet a completion deadline set in stone.
November 21 is the start date for Automotex, the European Automotive Technology & Motorsport Engineering Exhibition. Why am I telling you this? Because Automotex is the first show to be held at ExCel, London's newest and largest exhibition venue.

This is all well and good but the construction project isn't even finished yet. Now the task before Drake & Scull Engineering becomes apparent. D&S is scheduled to complete mechanical works on the first phase of ExCel on 18 November, just three days before Automotex. It then has a further two months to complete all works in time for final completion on 24 January 2001.

As mechanical contactor on the project, D&S is handling a contract of over £8·5 million in just 40 weeks. The contract covers the design development, installation and commissioning of all of the mechanical services including all chilled water, mthw pipework to plant rooms and heat exchangers for conversion to lthw, exhibition hall air handling, radiator systems, water drainage, controls and a bms.

Located in East London's Docklands, sitting massive and yet squat on the edge of the Royal Victoria Dock, ExCel is set to be the hub for the regeneration of a long derelict area. With over two million visitors expected in the first year, work is already underway on six new hotels, leisure and entertainment venues, restaurants and bars. But these projects are far from the minds of Ken Norman and Eddie Scott, D&S' main men on and off site. Norman is the contracts manager on site and Scott is pre-fab manager at D&S' off-site prefabrication facility in West Horndon, Essex.

The sheer scale of ExCel gives a clue to the amount of pipework and plant required. ExCel boasts 90 000 m2 of exhibition space, increasing to 155 000 m2 when fully complete, including halls that are 375 m long. D&S is installing services that run the length of these halls providing water, gas and compressed air to exhibitors.

As much as 60% of the work will be carried out off-site at the prefab factory including these long pipe runs. D&S has taken a step back and considered the need for rapid production and installation of services. It has engineered out the hot processes wherever possible, so that even the work at the prefabrication plant uses little welding.

Service pipe lengths of 18 m, compared to the usual 6 m, are assembled fixed on to a box-steel frame with all joints and offsets completed in the prefab shop. Bolted or victaulic joints are used to speed up the operation.

Trickier, small looped sections of pipework are also completed off site where possible. In this way, once delivered, all that is required on site is for them to be bolted together and fixed on to the associated plant.

Other innovations taken up by D&S are the use of plastic pipework where possible, press-fit joints and the delivery of plant just-in-time on skids ready to be manoeuvred into place and installed straight from the lorry.

The limited time frame of the contract and completion dates that are carved in stone make ExCel a huge challenge. Innovation and exploration of new styles of working have come to the fore as D&S strives to finish the contract on time. There is no room for error. The show must go on.

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Price Mechanical installation £8.5 million Total project cost £250 million