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Extract from an interesting article in UK construction week.

London’s homebuilders have been outpaced by the rest of Great Britain as investment in housebuilding dropped to its lowest value in six years. Residential contracts awarded in London in 2017 were 34% lower than the value awarded in 2016, in contrast to the majority of regions outside of the capital that experienced growth.

The latest data has come from the Regional Construction Hotspots in Great Britain 2018 report from industry analysts Barbour ABI and the Construction Products Association, which highlights the levels of construction contract values awarded in 2017 across all regions of Great Britain. Hotspots and coldspots identify the areas where contract awards were significantly above or below previous years, highlighting pockets of activity or contraction.

Comparisons like this are only valid if the market conditions in each area are equal. Overseas investors, tenure, size and complexity of sites in London versus regeneration projects and national regions coming on strong later in the sectors economic cycle all contribute to the swing. #housebui

After an early 3am start, Sean McHugh as the lead SAP / Engineer on site today completed the existing WPD disconnection of the HV temporary 500kVA overhead line supply and completed the underground connection to the new 33/11kV primary substation to feed existing substations Number 1 and Number 2.

This involved installing temporary generators onto the existing LV network during the early hours to avoid any disruption to customers, and then this allowed us to continue carrying out our HV switching operations to isolate the existing supplies for safety to allow WPD to carry out the disconnection of the OHL Pole, ABSD and associated span of overhead line equipment.

In order for this work to be completed in a well-executed manner, it required planning between all partiers, Sean McHugh (Triconnex Electrical area manager SW) with the IDNO (GTC), the DNO (WPD), our client (Brookbanks), developers (Bovis, Taylor Wimpey, Linden Homes), Ground work contractor (Groundfix), any vulnerable electricity dependant customers on this development as well as the organisation of the onsite teams required to ensure that the operation ran like clockwork.

This is part of the bigger picture and huge leap forward in the development of the electricity infrastructure and importantly gives us the load capacity to facilitate the new higher demand pumping station supply which we are aiming to complete in the next school half term in October.

The generator connections were well prepared in advance and this made for a very quick changeover today both putting them on at 4am and taking them off at 2pm minimising the disruption to all customers on this development which hopefully highlights the great efforts of all involved.

Major TriConnex milestone at Sherford, Nr Plymouth

Triconnex has reached a major milestone on our Sherford Primary substation build with the installation on site of the first of two Power Transformers – some photos and technical details are included below.

Well done to the teams involved for the success of this project to date.

Some facts about Power Transformers
‘Power’ transformers are a larger version of the ‘Distribution’ transformers typically used within an ‘on- site’ substation with a few key differences. In addition to converting from 33KV to 11 KV rather than 11 KV to 415 KV the biggest difference is the rating. – Power Transformers are able to supply 12 MVA (that is 12,000 KVA) in normal circumstances, and have fans fitted to their external oil radiators which means that with fans running, they can run at 18 MVA indefinitely.

To change the output voltage within a range, all transforms have a device called a ‘Tap Changer’, which alters the ratio of Primary to Secondary turns in use. On Distribution transformers, this is a simple device, which can only be operated DEAD (an ‘Off load tap changer). On a Power transformer, the taps must be changed multiple times every day as when the load changes, the voltage changes too. This requires an ‘On-Load’ tap changer, which is extremely complex and expensive, a highly mechanical device that has to absorb large amounts of energy.

Only one transformer is actually required to supply the load (equivalent of about 7,000 houses). In Primaries, two are always used so that one can be taken out of service and maintained, and to provide redundancy in case of a fault on one transformer.

Each weighs 30 tonnes, and has 6,600 litres of oil for cooling and contains 3.9 tonnes of copper in the core.

Simon Gallagher TriConnex -Technical Director

We are pleased to announce today, that Nexus Infrastructure plc, the parent company of TriConnex and its sister company Tamdown, is listing on the London Stock Exchange.
TriConnex will continue to work in partnership directly with all our clients, while also being able to increase our geographic penetration and service offering within the UK.
This exciting stage in the groups development has been made possible by our dedicated and exceptional staff. We look forward to seeing both TriConnex and the wider group go from strength to strength in the years ahead.

TriConnex has achieved another first in the South East. We have been confirmed as the first, and only, independent utility provider to achieve the status of Approved Designer for UK Power Networks (UKPN) across both Low Voltage and High Voltage networks.

This status is only available following a long period of preparing compliant designs and a rigorous assessment process. It allows us to approve our in-house designs on behalf of UKPN, which means that the electrical design approval process is cut by at least 10 working days. Of the 37 providers listed on UKPN’s website only 2 have achieved this highest level of approval and TriConnex is the only company listed that’s not tied to one asset owner.

Gaining control of this design approval has a massive impact on both the initial design period and our ability to react to variations throughout the project lifecycle. It also provides increased levels of pre-acquisition confidence compared to non-licensed consultants, since our solutions are pre-approved and therefore deliverable on-site.

As part of our drive for continuous improvement, we are committed to working with all of the various third parties that may impact on the on-time delivery of utility connections for our customers. This accreditation from UKPN is just the most recent in a string of planned process enhancements and follows our recent achievements in self-lay water and ultra-fast fibre.

Mark Becker, Technical Director at Redrow Homes (South East) said:
“The expert team at TriConnex is always looking at ways to streamline the delivery of our utilities. This recent success has already had a positive impact on our sites with designs coming through 10 days quicker. This is a step change in utility delivery”.

Since entering the water market in 2014, TriConnex has grown to become the largest provider of self-lay water connections for residential developers in the South East.

This is a significant milestone in the company’s goal to be the leading provider of multi-utility connections in the UK.

The difference to delivery on-site is truly transformational. By combining our unique heritage in the housebuilding sector with our specialist utilities expertise, we’ve reduced the lead time for new connections by almost a month, compared to the more traditional approaches of the host water companies.

Moreover, we’re able to bundle water connections with our complementary multi-utility services for electricity, gas and ultra-fast fibre to deliver fully integrated solutions from initial concept to final connection.

Since the on-time, guaranteed delivery of utility connections is a critical factor to our customers’ hitting their sales targets for new homes, this is a significant achievement, with very clear benefits to housebuilders. In fact, we’ve never missed a connections target, which is why most of the UK’s top 25 housebuilders trust TriConnex to deliver, on time, every time.

Marcus Armitage, Construction Director at Hopkins Homes said: “Since TriConnex has been delivering self-lay, we get our water installed when we need it, fully coordinated with the other services. They have finally broken the hold that the traditional water companies had over delivery of our developments”.

Always grateful to receive feedback from our clients, TriConnex gratefully received some amazing feedback from our client Bellway Homes.

The pictures show the level of care and pride TriConnex have in all areas of our work.

“Can you please convey my thanks and gratitude to both Adam and Nick who between them and the guys have excelled themselves over the last 3 days. Everything went according to plan with minimum disruption to the day to day running of the site, installed neat and tidy showing pride in their work. Meters now called off and awaiting to be installed.”

This particular scheme was challenging given the time scales our skilled teams were working to in order to achieve the customer’s tight deadlines. We could not be happier that our customer received a positive experience working with TriConnex

Essex and Bristol based Multi Utility provider TriConnex are delighted to have been selected as the chosen provider of Multi Utilities to the New Market Town development in Sherford, Devon.

Being equidistant between Dartmoor and the South Devon coast.

Appointed by the Sherford Consortium, which is a joint venture between Bovis Homes, Linden Homes and Taylor Wimpey, TriConnex was selected as their utility partner following a rigorous procurement process directed by Brookbanks the consortium’s project managers.

The scheme, one of the biggest in the UK, comprises 5,500 new homes, schools, shops, community uses and green spaces and will span over a period of 23 years producing significant economic stimulus for the region.

Starting on site in late 2015, the consortium’s vision for the development was created out of a unique town-wide planning process. This has resulted in a careful balance between housing, amenities, workspace and green space. The consortium is committed to delivering an energy-efficient, socially inclusive, economically sustainable and environmentally sensitive scheme.

Chris Doré – Business development director said “the consortium were fully committed to the multi utility approach from the beginning and really engaged with us during the selection process, together we have been able to craft the optimum solution for the consortium as a whole and as individual developers.”

This success along with other existing projects and staff in the area have accelerated the opening of a South West regional office in Bristol to provide a local base from which we can deliver our market leading utility delivery across a dynamic part of the UK.