Procured through the Scape framework from initial feasibility stage to completion and aftercare, this project involved the Internal Refurbishment and reconfiguration of part of the third floor of an occupied building run by Broxbourne council, to involve soft strip and part demolition, electrical reconfiguration to suit new layout, new walls, ceiling, decorations, flooring and supply of new office furniture (as an FFE package). This included new partitioning (plasterboard and glass partitions), new doors & ironmongery, and new ceilings / flooring to accommodate new M&E services including lighting. We also installed a new tea point and break out area.

Bishops College is a very busy live office facility which serves the local community as the Council offices for Broxbourne Council. The rest of the building remained fully functioning as a ‘live’ facility during both phases of our works. Existing services to the building needed to be maintained during the works, with exact locations established before works commenced.

The property is also located within an area of occupied residential and commercial properties. The area is highly trafficked by pedestrians and vehicles. Our welfare arrangement was sited to the rear of the building within an existing loading bay. Consideration for neighbours and their daily operations was given at all times during this project.

The project had a number of issues to be managed and overcome:

• Logistics – the site had a single access staircase in and out of the building which was shared with other building users. To reduce disruption and safeguard other building users, we arranged for all deliveries to be received outside of normal working hours, for us to manually handle materials to the work area and significantly reduce interfaces between our team and the other building users.
• Noise, dust and vibration control. The woks included demolition and alterations to accommodate the new layout, so there were some cutting activities and noisy works to consider. We used modern methods of construction to reduce impacts on other building users, for example use of non percussive tooling, restricted times for noisy works (which were notified to other building users ahead of time), and dust screening and extraction plant.

The project was eventually delivered over 8 weeks on site, and we have subsequently delivered a second scheme for the same client at the same site, procured via direct award through the Scape framework.