Case Study
MerseyCare Medium & Low Secure Unit
01 / Case Study
Merseycare Medium & Low Secure Unit
DSSR has been employed by MerseyCare NHS Trust to act as mechanical and electrical services advisors on the Medium Secure and Low Secure Unit developments on the Maghull Health Campus.
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Location / Winwick, England
Contract Value / £75m
Architect / Gilling Dod / IBI
Client / MerseyCare NHS Trust
Completion / 2020
02 / Overview
Overview of the Merseycare Medium & Low Secure Unit
The Medium Secure Unit was completed in 2020. It was procured under the P21+ framework through Kier Construction, with Rider Hunt as project managers and cost consultant. The project included 120 beds, catering, administration, and support accommodation. The Low Secure Unit is being procured under the P22 framework through IHP, with Gilling Dod as project architect and Rider Hunt as the project managers and cost consultant. The project is currently being developed to GMP following a successful OBC approval. It includes 80 beds, catering, administration, and support accommodation.
DSSR acted as the Trust Advisor on all M&E services issues for both projects, particularly those related to site infrastructure, enabling works, and abnormal engineering items with respect to primary services.
The Trust Estates Department did not have the surplus manpower to dedicate to major developments, so DSSR provided technical support in the development of both schemes. This included advising on the suitability of engineering solutions, commenting on design proposals, and vetting technical submissions.
A design review of the MSU stage 3, GMP, submission identified and addressed risk, identified over-design, and rationalised the scheme, identifying value engineering opportunities. This resulted in an affordable project within the Trust budget. Carrying out the same role for the LSU project allowed for the achievement of lessons learned and a common approach for both schemes.
As a result of DSSR’s experience of building services design, they were able to offer advice on the purely engineering elements of building design where the Trust team’s experience was limited.
The impact of the evolving regulatory environment required a current understanding of the likely changes in Building Regulations, particularly for the LSU, which will need to include a low carbon solution in recognition of the shift away from gas heating systems to lower carbon electrical systems.
DSSR played a key role in identifying and analysing the site infrastructure for both projects. The site includes the Ashworth Hospital High Secure Unit, the redundant Kennet prison, and a number of existing MerseyCare facilities. The services infrastructure has developed over many years to serve these and other buildings now demolished, via a disjointed and aging distribution network.
The loads of both the MSU and subsequent LSU were adding significant pressure on the distribution systems. This required identification of available services and the analysis of both the available capacity of each service and the additional loads to be added. In order to confirm the ability of the infrastructure to accommodate the additional loads, further analysis of the total diversified load on each service and the impact on the primary incoming supplies was required.
