Project Description
North Wales Police Eastern Command, Wrexham
Scale
Three storey PCE HybriDfma engineered offsite structure to form the headquarters offices and the thirty two cell custodial suite, incorporating holding cells and other ancillary rooms.
Flexibility
Using in house BIM design enabled accuracy of components, layouts and overall design to negate potential component “clashes” with following trades.
Three storey offices and 32 cell custody suite
PCE Ltd worked closely with Galliford Try to develop a PCE Hybrid design and build structural solution for the three storey offices and thirty two cell custody suite that forms the new headquarters for North Wales Police Eastern Command.
Hybrid structural frame
Erection of the Hybrid structural frame commenced on site by PCE followed their in house design process, which led to a variety of structural precast components being utilised including
- columns
- precast walls
- stairs and landings
- precast hollowcore flooring spanning in excess of 11.0m.
Fourteen PreFastCore precast concrete lift and stair boxes weighing up to 15 tonnes each were also used within the building.
Over three hundred and forty non flooring precast concrete components help form the Hybrid structure together with approximately 5,000m² of hollowcore flooring together with structural steel/concrete composite Deltabeams, other structural steel sections and structural reinforced insitu concrete.
A drone image of PCE’s construction of the Eastern Command headquarters in Wrexham
Reduction of the carbon footprint
The overall erection of the structural frame for the offices and cells took twelve weeks, with a maximum workforce of just twenty PCE employees.
The relatively low number of people required for the onsite works, coupled with the fast build programme, helped to reduce the construction carbon footprint of the building that has also been designed to include many energy saving features.
Location: Wrexham, UK
Architect: Buttress
Main Contractor: Galliford Try
Consulting Engineers: WYG
Design and build Hybrid construction project
The headquarters is the North Wales Police Eastern Command and custody facility which was planned to have up to 248 staff and officers being based there at any one time.
About PreFastCore
Rapid on site erection to full height, prior to the rest of the structural frame being erected, ensured:-
- reduced overall frame erection times
- safe and easy site personel access to the different floor levels as the building is constructed
- a cost-effective means of transferring lateral loads to the foundations.
PreFastCore units are manufactured using a purpose designed complex fully adjustable moulds system to ensure maximum variation in core sizes that can be cast with emphasis on dimensional accuracy.
The Eastern Command Headquarters story