Sale Leisure Centre

Trafford Council employed S I Sealy to design the Electrical Services and project manage the building repairs and  M&E services replacement to a large multi-use 1970’s Leisure Centre which comprised of 3 swimming pools, large 5 court hall, multi gyms, aerobics studios and various studios etc. Also, the building utilised 3 large plant room areas including CHP plant.

The project was complicated by the fact that the building had to remain in occupation and use by the public for the duration of the project, S I Sealy developed a complex construction programme which involved out of hours working to maintain services to key revenue earning areas.

A further complicating factor was that in addition to the project refurbishment works, asbestos was being stripped out of the building.  As the building was still completely operational, this work had to be undertaken at night when the building was closed to the public.  The building then had to be air-tested every morning to ensure that it was safe for use.  This significantly lengthened the time it would have taken to strip out the asbestos.  With this complicating factor, and the work that needed to be undertaken to upgrade the services, we had to carefully project manage, programme works, and coordinate activities.

The Council had a tight budget to undertake this work.  As we were project managing we had to ensure that we kept accurate and tight control of the budget.  We reported to the Chief Executive of Trafford Leisure Services on the budget.

A new lift was installed to an external wall.  This required us to liaise closely with Planning and Building Control.  We also had to have TPOs removed to enable essential tree-felling.

The project was delivered on time and to budget, which given the complicating factors was an exceptional result.  In addition, there was no serious loss of income to the Leisure Centre.

We also managed to programme in works so that the swimming pools were open in time for the schools-swimming lessons; the gym was open in time for the New-Year-Resolution rush – ie. those individuals who promised themselves they would start using the gym in January.

The Leisure Centre had an ambition, as part of this refurbishment, to make energy savings of around 20%.  This target was achieved by:

• Improved lighting and control
• Variable speed motors to all major plant and equipment
• Refurbishment of CHP plant – recommissioned to operate correctly
• Replacement of boiler plant