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April 2006 |
Main Contractor |
June 2006 |
Your
Mayor Councillor Ron Watts made an official visit to site of Pembroke
Docks latest development The Pembrokeshire Technium
currently under construction on the
Cleddau Bridge Business Park. The Mayor was welcomed to the
site by the projects site manager Phil Brown,
representing the main contractor for the construction of the building
Cardiff based E Turner and Sons. Also on hand to advise the Mayor was
David Davies Pembroke Dock Townscape Heritage Officer
The £13m Pembrokeshire
Technium in Pembroke Dock due to be completed in Autumn 2006
is being developed in partnership by Pembrokeshire County Council, the
University of Wales Swansea and the Welsh Development Agency. The
project is being funded by the partners and with £5.1m of Objective One
funding. The Pembrokeshire Technium will provide accommodation
suitable for technology businesses across a range of industry sectors,
with a particular emphasis on the energy sector..
with specialist academic research support.
The day of the visit was not the best of weather with heavy rain and
high winds, but the Mayor and party were keen to learn more about this
exciting project.
As we set off across the rain lashed site Phil Brown explained that most
of the ground work undertaken had alleviated the need to move material
off site, all such material has been graded and reused on site to
create an environmental friendly and bio diverse landscape. The
landscaping of the site is impressive even in its incomplete form
....and includes areas for the sustainability of the local wildlife and
plant life, with areas developed for the propagation of lizard, snakes,
frogs and various forms of sustainable plant and tree species etc. The
site boasts its own lake which will not only support local wildlife and
plants, but will be used to supply water for cooling the Antrim by
pumping water through under floor ducting and yes the water not the lake
can also be heated for those rare Pembroke Dock cold snaps. Phil went on
to explain that most of the contractors on site had been sourced locally
he himself hailing from Tenby, Our group were impressed by the total
professionalism and cheerfulness of all the people we meet, even in the
atrocious weather conditions on the site, our only disappointment on the
visit can be said to be the fact that kettle was broken !
It was nice to get out of the gales and under cover and even at
the current stage of development, which Phil reported was on time and on
budget, it was not difficult to be impressed by the main Atrium (Picture
2), the hub building containing the main Antrim will house a large
public reception area, off this area will be a number of incubation
units with research facilities. each unit has built in flexibility, the
neat flooring (Picture 3) arrangements allows easy access to all
services, so if you need and extra socket or two ...no problems here.
The roof of the main Antrim (Picture 4 roof not yet fitted) will be a
construction similar to that used on the Eden Project , know as
ETFE (ethyl tetra fluoro ethylene) referred to commonly as foil As
well as being strong, lightweight, anti static, and highly transparent
to UV light it is not degraded by sunlight, has better insulation
properties than glass, and is recyclable.
ETFE weighs less than 1%
of the equivalent sized pane of glass, needs less steel to hold it up
and lets more light through, as we have already said ETFE is recyclable
and long lasting with a life span of over 25 years and very tough. it is
non-stick and therefore self cleaning The rest of the roofing is
made by all I can call an aluminium and insulation sandwich The total
weight of the roofing at the centre weighs in at a lowly 15 tons.
Projects at the
Technium will focus on energy and includes dedicated facilities for the
University research teams. These include an electronics laboratory and a
mechanical workshop as well as office accommodation. The University will
base teams working on legal aspects of the energy industry, development
of improved energy technologies (including marine renewable energies)
and an IBM product lifecycle management Centre of Excellence.
All areas in the campus
have been designed and built to a high standard and encompass all the
latest accessibility and environmental requirements.
On the same campus will be two blocks of expansion units (Picture 5)
designed for businesses outgrowing their incubation facilities there
will also be made available accommodation for researchers and specialist
business support teams The units of around 290
square meters including office and service facilities, all have the
latest technology built in ready to go including broadband and fibre
speed.
The Technium will provide access to an IBM PLM (Product Lifecycle
Management) suite and support in its use
On a lighter note if
you would like to work with some of the best views in Pembrokeshire to
look out on with a environmentally and biodiversity friendly park to
lunch in ...book your place now.
Pembroke Dock Community Web Team (aj)
Disclaimer.
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