MoD Lyneham

This £121million joint venture project between Kier Major Projects and Balfour Beatty involved converting the existing RAF base into a major engineering training campus, providing state-of-the-art facilities for up to 5,000 Army, RAF and Navy trainees. MAC were chosen to work on an extensive range of new build and refurbishment projects, incorporating 10 different roofing and cladding disciplines. This included composite panel roofs and walls, standing seam roofs, pitched composite panels with concrete tiles over, built-up metal cladding, hot melt and single ply flat roofs, built-up felt refurbishment roofs and pitched tiled roofs on trusses.

On such a huge, exposed site, the weather was a major issue and it was never easy to manage labour, materials and machinery whilst working on so many projects simultaneously. However, MAC’s experienced team worked closely with supply chain partners to effectively overcome this logistical challenge. We regularly had 20 – 30 tradesmen working on site and this number rose to 35 during the busiest times on the project when we had 15 buildings running concurrently.

Timescales were also tight and there were demanding budgetary requirements, meaning that best value system installation was a pre-requisite at all times. Despite this financial pressure, we were able to deliver everything required by the client, both on time and within budget. Each individual building had its own unique challenges and, as a result, each job had to be individually evaluated and value-engineered accordingly. Ingenuity and innovative problem-solving was also required in order to respond to technical and practical challenges as they arose on site, enabling works to progress effectively.

The success of MAC Roofing’s approach is evident in the fact that an original order of £250,000 for the Training Centre eventually turned into £4,500,000 worth of works across 35 buildings!