En dan nu de prijs er bij
Bam Nuttall lands £500m Antarctic framework
23 Mar 2021 By Lem Bingley
Bam Nuttall has secured a 10-year, £500m contract to upgrade and extend polar research stations for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).
The firm secured the work, commissioned by funding body UK Research and Innovation, in partnership with design consultant Sweco.
At the start of procurement in September last year, BAS said it wanted a supplier to provide design-and-build support across a wide range of projects under an NEC4 framework contract. It had already appointed engineering consultancy Ramboll as technical adviser under a separate 10-year agreement.
The latest contract extends Bam Nuttall’s existing relationship with the client, covering the first phase of the Antarctic Infrastructure Modernisation Programme. In 2017, BAS appointed the firm as the sole contractor to carry out the 10-year, £100m programme of improvement work that has seen the construction of a new research station on Bird Island, a new wharf at the BAS Rothera base that was completed in April last year, and the start of work on a new research and operations building at Rothera.
The new contract covers the second and third phases of the AIMP and is set to include upgrades to Rothera’s runway and hangars, energy efficiency and sustainability improvements, a new accommodation block and a new marine facility, and the extensive modernisation or replacement of several other research stations.
BAS director Professor Dame Jane Francis said: “Our ambition is to continue to replace ageing buildings with modern, highly insulated and energy-efficient infrastructure. It is our world-leading research that underlines the urgency to cut the emission of greenhouse gases and we are rising to the challenge. We will move away from our reliance on carbon fossil fuels to sustain our Antarctic buildings, and aim to scale-up our use of renewable energy sources.”
Francis added that she hoped the modernisation programme “will enable us to meet our goal of achieving net-zero [carbon emissions] by 2040, if not before.”
Bam Nuttall chief executive Adrian Savory said his firm aims to “maximise digital technologies and modularisation to support safe, predictable and sustainable outcomes” during the work.
Last week, Bam Nuttall workers completed work on foundations for the 4,500 square metre Rothera research building. Due to the harsh Antarctic climate, construction can only take place during the continent’s summer, from December to May. Hampered further by COVID-19 safety restrictions, the 24-person team had only ten weeks to complete this season’s programme, which began in January.
They laid 70 precast concrete foundations to support the building’s structural steel frame and installed 32 sections of perimeter wall, and also put in and levelled around 3,500 tonnes of graded rock fill, ready for ground floor slabs to be fitted next season. The work demands meticulous planning, with the remote location meaning every last nut and bolt required must be brought to the site in one shipment.
BAS’s AIMP director Jonathan Ager said recent work has been the project’s most challenging to date: “We were forced to curtail this activity last season, to bring our team home safely as the world entered lockdown. It was therefore essential that we completed the groundworks this season so that when we return in December, we have the best opportunity to complete a weathertight structure, and to prevent damage from the extreme Antarctic winter.”