Jones and Woolman UK has been working to support Her Majesty’s Prison Service with a range of services across multiple prisons in the UK. The range of services provided to date includes everything from our specialist weatherproofing applications including: smoke vents, ventilation, roof upstands, fabrication, sealing in situ, valley gutters, flashing intersections, natural daylight systems, and wind catchers. In addition to initial project services, we also hold a continued relationship with HM Prison Service for the undertaking of ongoing maintenance works.
Jones and Woolman UK was chosen for HM Prison Service projects thanks to its expertise in dealing with some of the roofing issues common to prison facilities. In particular, cladding contractors benefit from our expertise in handling the specific levelling systems and challenges that projects pose when handling valley gutters, where two sheets effectively meet at an angle. For this, Jones and Woolman UK has pioneered a simple solution of a central gutter and weathering system on the two sides of the sheets providing a robust end-product.
Providing some insight on the challenges in prison service contracts, Neil Boylan, contracts director at Jones and Woolman UK commented: “The steep roofs are challenges on prison contracts. Many years ago, you might have prisoners climbing out of windows and sitting on roofs, so they’re now designed to be very steep to avoid this. Consequently access makes it very challenging in these projects and we use cherry pickers and truck-mount cherry pickers to get around security fences and other obstacles.”
Additional access complications come from the additional security checks required for working across HM Prison Service contracts, however Jones and Woolman UK’s staff are all pre-emptively DBS checked and undertake drug and alcohol testing to ensure suitability when working with such clients. In doing this, we’re able to showcase our dedication to putting professionalism first in all things – more evidence of which can be found in similar case study projects at Doha International Airport and the Etihad Stadium.
Using BIM to foresee and adapt to project complications
To minimise cost and improve service efficiencies, it’s vital for works to be completed in a timely and streamlined manner. Due to access restrictions and regulations specific to the prison service, Jones and Woolman UK has had to further its forward-thinking approach more than ever, with a keen focus being placed on minimising the number of trips and volume of products being taken into and out of the site. All of this has been done to try and minimise the load placed on the prison service during the performance of works (due to the element of important security checks) and associated delays.
Planning, off-site fabrication and the utilisation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) have all contributed to Jones and Woolman UK being able to minimise the amount of time spent on-site and avoid many of the typical challenges for these kinds of projects. BIM models are used to highlight any potential issues or challenges that might be experienced during projects or ongoing maintenance works, which can quickly be passed onto main contractors as well as adapted off-site, in advance. This has demonstrated our ability to create huge time savings by the use of simple, but effective best practises.
Neil Boylan added: “We use a lot of 3D BIM models rather than the standard technical drawings. By moving the models around on the computer screen, we can foresee any problems that might occur or cause issues with progression of the project. Then we can explain the situation to the main contractor and show when we need to perform our works to avoid any issues.”
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