Three new
housing and community schemes are being built on Salisbury Plain to accommodate
service personnel relocating from Germany.
Taylor Lane
Timber Frame has supplied and erected 450 timber frame kits at the Bulford and
Larkhill sites. The Hereford-based business is one of two timber frame
manufacturers appointed by main contractor, Lovell.
The Defence
Infrastructure Organisation has tasked Lovell with delivering 917 homes
(Service Families’ Accommodation (SFA)) over three sites in a little over two
years.
John Leary,
major projects director, Lovell says: “Given the demands of the client’s
programme [completion by May 2020], our decision to utilise OSM in the form of
timber frame was instantly a given. Taylor Lane Timber Frame and Stewart
Milne Timber Systems were selected following rigorous qualitative scrutiny from
a panel of the country’s leading manufacturers/installers.”
Taylor Lane
was charged with completing 225 units at Bulford and Stewart Milne, 242 units
at Ludgershall. But Larkhill is different, comprising 450 units, twice
the size of the other two.
John,
continues: “From the outset our vision was to award one of the two smaller
schemes to each of the two providers and allow their relative performance to be
the route to our Larkhill decision. Both performed extremely well and
were equally worthy of the larger site. Ultimately, the leadership of
both businesses approached us and promoted the radical idea of sharing the site
which we initially found difficult to come to terms with. However, our
partners persuaded us that with careful programming and planning the site could
be safely compartmentalised to share the work equally and at the same time
assure us of programme adherence. The results speak for themselves.”
The companies
worked with six basic house types, to streamline manufacturing and build
efficiencies. Taylor Lane used its 140mm timber frame system with
75mm insulation to achieve the required U-value (0.21 W/m2K). Each property is designed to
have an energy performance 19% greater than Building Regulations
requirements.
Taylor Lane
kicked off by erecting 225 plots at Bulford, in just 29 weeks. This site
set the standard for Taylor Lane, in both production output and
operations. The company handed over the final frame at Bulford on 30th November 2018. Work had already
started at the Larkhill site.
Larkhill
required dedicated onsite management and efficient programming. Its
success has been reliant on exceptional communication. The Taylor Lane
and Stewart Milne site offices were opposite one another, for example, with the
site supervisors meeting daily to share crane plans; road closures; deliveries
and delivery schedules, to accommodate one other and not compromise the slew
radius.
Initially,
both companies handed over five units per week, this accelerated to a combined
16 units per week. This could not have been achieved with traditional
masonry construction, the programme would have taken around five rather than
two years to complete. This fast-track, high-volume project is an
industry exemplar, demonstrating the benefits of timber frame for speed,
precision and efficiency.
“The rate of
delivery achieved on our SPTA scheme is frankly incredible. […] we have
achieved productivity that is otherwise unprecedented in UK low rise housing,
i.e. 16 units per week and much credit must be attributed to certain key
ingredients of our supply chain, not least our two timber frame providers,”
continues, John.
Taylor Lane
celebrated the erection of its final unit at Larkhill; the last property of the
contract, with a topping out ceremony on Friday 2nd August 2019.
With the
final phase of the Army Basing Programme underway, military personnel have
already begun the relocation to Salisbury Plain, occupying completed properties
at Bulford and Ludgershall. Lovell is on track to complete the project in
advance of the May 2020 deadline.
John
concludes: “I would have no hesitation in working with either or both of our
timber frame partners on any future scheme, having immense confidence in their
willingness to collaborate openly and with integrity and ultimately to deliver
on their promise.”
