Archived decisions
Procurement Initiatives 2003/4 Appendix 4
Additional Proposals
Replacement of Wet Cooling Towers at Three Minsters House, Hampshire Scientific Services and Winchester Crown Court.
A project is proposed to replace the coding plant at each of the sites above. The cooling plant in the Law Courts and Three Minsters House are approximately 30 years old and in the Scientific Services Building the service is in excess of 20 years old. All three sets of plant have reached the end of the operational life. It is proposed to replace all three with `dry' cooling plant to increase the reliability and efficiency of the systems.
The overall value of work to each property is as follows:
· Three Minsters House £260,000.
· Hampshire Scientific Services £300,000
· Law Courts (subject to funding
Agreement with the Department
(for Constitutional) Affairs £240,000
The works are complex, of a very specialist nature and require careful planning and procurement of specialist equipment and installers. For this reason, it is proposed to procure the work through a best value single stage tendering procedure with bids invited for the whole package from preferred Engineering Service Contractors.
Replacement Uninterruptible Power (UPS) Supply to the IT Suite
The UPS system in the IT suite in Elizabeth Court is designed to provide short term standby power to the suite should the mains electricity supply fail. The existing UPS system is nearing the end of its operational life and has in recent weeks suffered a number of breakdowns. In addition, because of the growth in capacity in the suite the current UPS does not have the capacity to support all of the essential equipment in the suite.
The proposal therefore is to replace the current UPS with a new system to give increased capacity and reliability.
This type of work is, by its nature, specialised and it is proposed that a two stage best value tendering process is used to allow the specialist UPS supplier/installer to be involved early in the project. It is proposed that tenders are invited from 3 specialist firms. This will allow for the work to be programmed and integrated into the day to day running of the IT suite which will be operational throughout the installation work. Further, it will enable the cabling infrastructure to be co-ordinated with the requirements of the UPS system and the power distribution network in the suite.
Cost of the works will be in the order of £150k funded jointly from IT Services and the landlord's contribution.
Fire Suppression and Alarm System in the IT Suite
The IT suite in Elizabeth Court is served by a fire detection system to give early warning of a fire condition. Currently, there is no primary fire suppression system in the suite to fight the fire should such a condition arise.
It is proposed to install an integrated fire detection and fire suppression system to provide early warning of the detection of the fire and, should the need arise, the means by which a fire can be controlled.
The fire suppression system will be an inert gas system which, when activated, will flood the affected compartment with the inert gas to control the fire. Activation of the suppression system will be via an aspirated fire detection system which is able to detect very low concentrations of smoke in the atmosphere.
The specialist nature of the detection and suppression systems together with the need to integrate both into an operational IT suite will require the specialists to be brought into the project early. For these reasons a two stage best value tendering approach is proposed for this project with three preferred specialist firms.
Response after Fires and other Urgent Work
Recent fires have lead to some fairly significant projects and it would make sense to involve a large contractor with established management and health and safety expertise who can deal effectively and safely with these situations.
It is therefore proposed to use the Major Framework contractors Brazier and Mansell, both of whom have a good track record on major projects and major refurbishments and repairs. In addition these contractors have special works departments who can tackle works as a result of a fire and have established systems to mobilise quickly for first response work including securing the site and making safe. In the case of a major fire it may also be sensible for the Framework Contractor to be involved with all of the recovery work in terms of the full reinstatement and reconstruction.