The Whitehaven Project

Challenge

In 2018, Wates Construction awarded Johnsons the opportunity to be part of a prestigious school amalgamation project. As the leading builders on the Whitehaven Project, they required an experienced and trustworthy partner to deliver the decant and delivery of relocation services from St Benedict’s Catholic High School and Mayfield School into the newly built £30m campus. The move took place during the Christmas and New Year holiday period and included the clearance of existing facilities, relocation of the labs/science departments, chemical and heavy machinery relocations.

Solution

For this project, we provided:

Fully inclusive move management services carried out by a dedicated Move Manager
Compiling of an accurate legacy list which could be utilised by the onsite teams
Development and implementation of a colour-coded pre-printed label strategy
Development and delivery of a multi-phased plan across both School sites to provide a best-fit completion schedule
Attending project set up meeting to conduct project kick-off and agree final scope/project governance
Supply of sufficient cages, crates, bubble and shrink wrap, security seals and pre-printed labels to enable staff to pack up the contents of the classrooms, offices and store rooms
Provision of a pre and post building condition survey at both sites
Providing specific move guides with all key tasks/information/dates to ensure all pre-move activity is accurately actioned
Daily attendance by Move Manager and Senior Supervisors allocated to each site whilst the decant was taking place
Relocation of pre-packed IT crates at St Benedict’s Catholic High School
Facilitating the staff feedback process

To facilitate the handover within the desired timescales required by Wates and both schools, we were required to develop and implement a strategic plan so we could ‘hit the ground running’ once allowed on site. For two weeks of the festive period our teams worked tirelessly between all three sites, ensuring the delivery would be completed in time for the new term to commence in January 2019.

Naturally, with a union of buildings poses many issues such as communication, timescale and space clashes at the new building. We therefore presented a solution of providing a Senior Supervisor to each St Benedict’s Catholic High School and Mayfield School who would liaise closely with the over-arching Move Manager and be a permanent fixture each site thus becoming the immediate point of contact for Wates and any school staff who visited. The Senior Supervisors were provided with a full legacy list of the items being relocated from each school, complete with a timetable of when their site was to be relocated, creating a continuous working activity schedule and avoiding any holdups at the new build.