KGX1 Chiller room cuts installation from 9 months to 22 days

14/10/21 : TClarke’s KGX1 Project Director Tom Anglim introduces an outstanding example of TClarke’s leading edge DfMA (Design for Manufacture and Assembly) engineering services capabilities.

Our team is proud of our involvement at Kings Cross. It is a world class project for a world class client, and it will be a new London landmark – a ‘groundscraper’ that will be longer than the Shard is tall. It will be part of the London technology hub that clusters some of the world’s biggest technology companies. So, in many ways it is one of the most important new buildings in London.

We are delivering two mechanical packages here – and to do that we have not only delivered the installation, but we have also worked to deliver the maximum value possible within the programme by developing a design and an installation process that is optimised in every way. 

At the heart of our approach has been modularisation – where we have manufactured 35 vast mechanical multi service modules and 22 skids at our specialist Manufacturing Facility.

Modularisation and offsite manufacture allow you to achieve the highest levels of safety, quality, and efficiency for each of the units – since precision manufacture in a purpose-built facility can be done with more control, care and comfort than is possible onsite within a live construction environment. Modularisation also offers substantial strategic advantages – to programme timings and to the overall costs within the programme.

The range of cost benefits are numerous – because on complex construction projects, programme delivery with as many as 50 specialist contractors working together, is substantially enhanced by any strategic actions that simplify the whole process and programme.

You can see this with absolute clarity when you look at the KGX1 chiller room. We have taken a lot of the traditional co-ordination work into the digital world, co-ordinating the services between different trades in BIM (3d digital design modelling). The sequencing of works has also been carried out in 4D Syncro with TClarke operating as lead co-ordinator. (It’s a planning tool used in conjunction with the programme in Primevera 6 and the Navis Model, which shows the sequence and would highlight any clashes, and aid in delivering a safe and methodical installation.

Pictured : TClarke Non Executive Directors shown the KGX1 Chiller Room by Project Director, Tom Anglim