www.swimmingpoolnews.co.uk
THE DIARY OF A FLUME… FROM DRAWING TO DESIGN
Commercial projects are renowned for being time consuming, particularly in the planning stage. Here, Certikin’s Commercial Manager, Steve Nelson gives the Plymouth project’s timeline from conception to fruition. After he personally travelled 7,597 miles, worked 650 man hours, wrote 2,500 emails, filled eight leaver files with paperwork… some three and a half years later, Plymouth Life Centre was declared, with great fanfare, open to the public.
September 2008: I was approached at the Leisure Industry Week exhibition in Birmingham by an architect working on a ‘project that required a couple of flumes’ and knowing the Certikin name, asked if we could help.
Last quarter of 2008: Discussions with the architect got underway. We gave them a list of previous installations and designs that we have worked on in the UK and Ireland. The design of the entire complex was in its early stages and we had to work closely with the architect to ensure that we met the design criteria so that the flumes would fit into the whole scheme.
March and April 2009: Designed the final layout of the flumes ready for submission to the client for approval. Discussed the choice of colours – the colour is vital so as not to date the equipment in times to come.
May 2009: Firmed up the design and specification with the architect and consultant eg flow rates of each flume, suction points, sizes of pipes, discharge sizes, ride times, traffic details of how many users could use the slide per hour etc.
August 2009: The project went out to tender and we began to be approached by firms to price for the design, supply and installation of the two flumes. Costing a flume is an interesting and, at times, difficult thing to do. Although you know the length of the tubes, sizes of aqua catches and height and details of the staircase you also have to consider the steel work costs, labour, lifting equipment, access equipment, deliveries and a thousand other variables and unknown costs. A further complication is that the quote has to run for the life of the project and as Plymouth was looking at an 80-week build timescale we had to second guess commodity pricing for up to two years in advance as well.
September 2009: Saw round two of pricing so again items were added and others omitted so the whole process had to be done again to ensure that all costs and potential future costs were covered. As this was a small part of a much bigger project, lots of other trades and disciplines were involved so costing a job of this size and the tender process was a protracted affair that lasted till the winter of 2009.
Early 2010: The Main Contract was appointed and the subcontractors were chosen based on when the goods were required and where they fitted into the design schedule.
March 2010: We began the pre-let process with the main contractor. At this stage the ground works began. This involved the first of many trips to Plymouth. We entered into the formal agreement and in April 2010 the contract arrived (via TNT as it was too heavy for post!). We went back and forth on the contract’s terms and conditions and what was and was not included in the package and what extras were needed, or not in some cases.
April 2010: We were on Contract and on board. We were given a first fix of installation date of December 2010 for the steel work and June 2011 for the flumes so 36 weeks away for the steel and approximately 70 weeks for the flumes.
August 2010: Issues arose – the client decided it would not work to have four
main support structures so we had to look to hang most of the flume off the roof! The roof was 10m+ high and sloping with Gluman beams and some were 20m wide so the additional weight and fixings were not going to be easy for either Certikin nor the roofing contractor who would have to revise sizes and material of these beams to accept a flume being hung off it. Following a redesign and new hole positions in the beams to make sure that the nine roof wire positions were perfect otherwise it would have thrown the flumes out.
Winter 2010/11: Was one of the worst on record and delays occurred on site. This in itself is unavoidable but when you are looking at manufacturing times of sometimes 16 weeks for various parts it has a knock-on effect for the scheduling and allocation of resources.
July 2011: After the long winter we were scheduled to start on site with the steelwork. The steel structure and the crane had to come through a set of double doors. Fortunately, we had built into the schedule a very experienced crane company – the main column was over 6m tall and weighed nearly two tonnes. We now had to race to manufacture certain sections of flume (high level) and get these hung off the roof before the tilers came in. Hanging the high level supports was at times difficult as we could only use spider cranes and cherry pickers. Having to support from the roof involved a greater installation time as each section took longer to lift and brace. We finished this section on time in order to get the other trades in behind us. The end was in sight but we still had major areas to deal with such as the interface with FT Leisure on the pumps and BMS (Building Management System) and to make sure that the second cast of the aquacatch landing installed the pipes just right. Imagine two 8” pipes sticking up 4m in the sky from an underground plant room and you have to get these in a grid square 10” x 10” in a building above or the aquacatch will miss the down pipe and the flume will not fit.
September/October 2011: The tiling was finished and we went back in to supply the lower level of the flumes and aquacatches. It was vital on a site of this size (at some points 250+ men on site) that we did not leave the flume exposed to contractors who might walk on it and damage the surfaces. The final sections were in place and we then had to wait for water to test and commission the flumes. It was important when interfacing with FT Leisure that we made sure that the water flows were right as too fast and the rider would come down the flumes too quickly; too slow and the rider could stop short.
January/February 2012: The flume was commissioned and put under test. We set the weir boards and tested the flume 20+ times at various speeds and ride positions; we had to account for every scenario fast, slow, sideways and all ways! The flume ran and was under test as part of the whole centre for two weeks prior to opening.
March 2012: The centre opened! The flumes were a massive hit, with the queue for the flume snaking right around the learner pool. spn
ProjectShowcase DEC 2012 SPN
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