management tasks, including: Processing, storing, sharing, reviewing and marking up all project data — including models, drawings and documents — in a secure location that was efficient to access by all project stakeholders • Quickly opening and filling out customised online forms and sharing them in real-time with those who needed the information • Conducting safety walkthroughs on site with tablets, noting and photographing issues from beginning through their rectification • Logistics of prefabricating materials in the Northern Ireland workshop, and then transporting and lifting them into position via a 3M x 3.4M opening to access the underground levels • Offsite solution usage, including virtual reality (VR) and noting anchor points to show the project team and client the methodology for safe transport and delivery of MEP systems
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INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY HELPED DELIVER THE CLARIDGE’S HOTEL PROJECT SAFELY AND EFFICIENTLY - 5 FLOORS BELOW GROUND Designing and building Claridge’s Hotel Energy Centre was a feat of skill, strategy and digital communication
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By Benedict Wallbank, BIM Strategy & Partnerships Manager, Trimble Viewpoint
To execute the massive project in a safe, efficient and profitable manner, the team ditched the paperwork and went digital with a digital project management technology solution.
Kane Group has always embraced project innovation and thrives on a good challenge. So, when the contractor faced the most logistically challenging project in its history — designing, prefabricating and installing the £12 million energy centre located five stories below Claridge’s Hotel, a luxury property developed by Maybourne Group in London’s busy Mayfair area — Kane Group relied on a strategic plan with robust digital communications to get the work done. The project scope included combined heat and power systems, gas boilers, chillers and fan coil units. A centralised vent system formed part of the works, encompassing 24 air handling units and an emergency lighting monitoring system, backup generator, CCTV, fire protection, as well as alarm and access control system. From a design and build standpoint, the primary challenges of this project were: • Achieving quality communications between teams working in the underground energy centre to project teams working in a Northern Ireland office and ground-level teams situated at the project site • Logistics of getting prefabricated project materials to and from the project site located five stories underground in a busy city neighborhood
Record-keeping operations for health and safety, permitting, assembly, maintenance and commissioning
Throughout this project, our team relied heavily on a project management software system — in our case, Viewpoint’s Field View — to keep accurate records of on-site quality checking, pressure testing, HSE inspections, energisation requests and work permits - Martina Hawkins, business systems manager for Kane Group. Kane Group outfitted the project team with tablets and general software training, and then used the program for key project
Benedict Wallbank
12 Construction UK Magazine - August 2022
“One of the primary drivers that led us to implement a paperless project management system was knowing we would increase safety and gain massive project efficiencies by utilizing digital communications,” said Hawkins. Key metrics included: Labour hours. Construction teams logged 93,863 labour hours for the energy centre project, which included a basement area of 24,000M/3 and 10,000M+ of pipework installation. • Document counts. By the end of the project, the total document count was 5,156 between Kane Group and the 17 other contractors — including 247 drawings and 430 prefabrication drawings — and a project email archive of 13,973. • Asset inventories. Kane Group generated more than 2,000 QR codes and attached them to plant assets for recording future maintenance checks.
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“From the very first meeting, when project stakeholders explained their vision and what they were trying to deliver for Claridge’s, we were hooked on the project,” said Cathal McMullan, managing director of Kane Group. “The end results speak for themselves.”