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.

 Technium Visit.  21st June 2006....a very long day

The Technium take shape

Inside the main Antrim

 
Hot or Cold

Space and innovation

A big well done not just to the developers but the designers of this stunning build

A few shots of the progress of the Pembroke Dock Technium .......We were pleased to be invited to revisit the site so we could report the progress of the project...... yes still just on schedule and budget... and Paul the site manager, who was showing us round today tell us it will be finished in 7 weeks...good luck  to you all....we can't wait to visit the finished product ..and once again a big thank you to  the team at the site for there hospitality..... p.s. the kettle was working this time !  there are more pictures are available on Roberts Rambles........

Main Contractor

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