Delivering at Scale: HMP Gartree & HMP Glasgow, Simultaneously
Delivering one major custodial facility is complex. Delivering two, simultaneously, at opposite ends of the UK, for two separate government clients, demands something more.
At HMP Gartree for the Ministry of Justice and HMP Glasgow for the Scottish Prison Service, PCE is delivering nearly 3,000 new prison places across 12 houseblocks, alongside entrance buildings and specialist facilities including Care & Separation Units (CaSU).
Both schemes are being delivered using PCE’s Secure Prison structural system - a proven, systemised solution built around a configurable kit of repeatable components drawn from our established system library and tailored to each project’s specific requirements.
25,000 Structural Elements. One Coordinated Operation.
Across the two programmes:
- 25,000 structural elements manufactured simultaneously
- 15 suppliers across the UK and Europe
- Digitally tracked in real time
Each component is fully integrated offsite, including windows, M&E interfaces and façade elements, manufactured under controlled conditions before entering a precisely sequenced logistics programme
Deliveries are:
- Just-in-time
- Loaded in installation order
- Stacked on the wagon to enable direct lift
- Installed from vehicle to final position
No double handling. No site storage. No guesswork.
Behind this coordination sits Ynomia's advanced digital twin technology.
Every one of the 25,000 components is tracked in real time across design, manufacture, delivery and installation. Progress, QA/QC data and status are visible at every stage, at the press of a button.
Total transparency. Informed decisions. Made at the right moment.
This is industrialised construction operating at national scale.
Absolute Control. Absolute Certainty.
By aligning design and deploying a systemised methodology, PCE works closely with the wider project teams, overseeing specification, interfaces, manufacturing quality, sequencing and logistics - creating predictable, repeatable programme certainty across two of the UK’s largest custodial builds.
While the sites are hundreds of miles apart, the delivery model is singular:
Digitally managed. System-driven. Fully coordinated.
Complexity Managed. Risk Reduced.
This level of coordination does not happen by chance. It is engineered. Thousands of integrated components moving across borders and arriving to site in perfect sequence.
At HMP Gartree and HMP Glasgow, PCE is demonstrating that, when the right system is in place, scope and scale do not introduce uncertainty.
Because when delivery is industrialised, digitally controlled and system-led, certainty isn’t aspirational.
It’s standard.
CGI images courtesy of Holmes Miller.
Prison images of HMP Five Wells, built using PCE's Secure Prison system.
