Secure Custody System completed in Bedford
Bedfordshire Police Custody Suite – design and manufacture process behind successful project completion
The Design and Manufacture stages for the custody suite facilities for Bedfordshire Police at Woburn Road, Bedford, which led to PCE Ltd’s 10 day on-site build programme to assemble the 22 holding cells in 3 wings along with associated spaces within the charge area, working with Main Contractor Willmott Dixon, once again proved the efficiency of the PCE HybriDfMA Secure Custody System approach.
Developed and refined over many years to maximise the many benefits of offsite manufacturing and onsite assembly efficiency the all-important police cells of the Secure Custody System are based on Design for Manufacture and Assembly, (DfMA), principals using a common ‘kit of parts’ of components. State of the art digital design processes have been standardised for every PCE Custody Suite project thus ensuring for example that all temporary works risks are fully evaluated so that actions that can be taken offsite prior to delivery, such as the fixing of temporary hole covers, and handrail connections, etc, are achieved to negate such works on site thus improving the construction efficiency. The structural design of the police holding cells and associated structure for the Bedfordshire Police Custody project followed the PCE standardised process which removed the unpredictability and uncertainty of delivering such a complex custody facility, giving quality and value to the client. This standardised design system approach by PCE maximises repetition of the unit precast concrete geometry and connectivity thus enabling efficiencies in the manufacturing process to be fully achieved.
First time fit of offsite engineered components
The Bedfordshire Police Custody Suite project reaped the benefits of this approach with the production of 131 large scale components in approximately 35 working days. All components were manufactured within the strict tolerances required to ensure an accurate ‘first time’ fit, thus preventing any delays to the on-site assembly process and with extremely high quality of finish to enable direct paint decoration where required.
PCE’s Project Manager Darren Waller has commented:
"This project has once again shown the benefits of a client using the company’s well proven Secure Custody System.
"Everybody in the PCE team that has had a hand in delivering this project including estimators, designers, manufacturing coordinators, quantity surveyors, the multi-disciplinary on-site construction team and other company support staff, have shown tremendous commitment and worked collaboratively to make achieve another great success, as one would expect from an ambitious company owned by its employees."
