Case Study 1:
The Principal Contractor Role
The Site
A partnership between a well-known UK-based furniture & furnishing retailer and a major international warehousing & logistics company, take over a new 750,000 ft2 warehouse unit.
The warehouse is to be fitted-out with high-bay wide-aisle heavy-duty pallet-racking, sprinkler systems and background heating. To meet the clients' needs, the three-storey office block is to have extensive interior modifications and two additional office blocks are to be constructed within the warehouse. On top of all that, extensive exterior civil engineering works are required to provide additional hard-standing and other facilities.
The Problem.
The fit-out project has to be completed to a very-demanding schedule. With four specialist main contractors (and numerous subcontractors) on-site, the clients are concerned that there is no 'natural' principal contractor and decides that they need a presence on-site to co-ordinate the day-to-day activities of the contractors and look after site safety.
The Solution.
The clients appointed Diamond as Principal Contractor; a role clearly defined in the Construction Design & Management ('CDM') Regulations as having (amongst other things) responsibility for overseeing the health & safety standards of all of the other contractors.
Diamond established a presence on-site during working hours, undertaking safety management (inspections, site inductions, etc) and facilitated the co-ordination of the activities of the various contractors to ensure the smooth-running of the whole project.
The Outcome.
The project was delivered on-time, on-budget and with no significant health & safety issues.
