Allenbuild – Bodmin PFI Hospital
2001 was a year of advancement for J W Lewis & Sons Ltd. We were privileged to be awarded key contracts which proved to be incredibly successful during this year and confirmed that our Company had developed into a major force in the South West.
Ask anyone at J W Lewis what they consider to be the largest roof area undertaken to date, only one contract would be considered – “Bodmin Hospital”. Ask Jason Matthews if this was correct, he would probably shrug his shoulders, agree and say “it was no problem”, and he would be right. Up to this date, we had carried out larger than normal contracts, but not one came close to this. It all started on the 8th February 2001 ……..
There had been a lot of press coverage on the proposed new hospital to be built in the Southern part of the grounds of the St Lawrence’s Hospital on Boundary Road in Bodmin. Most of the general public thought it to be a positive step to help an increasingly busy Treliske and Derriford hospitals. Planning was approved, the fences went up including signage and the site was cleared. Construction had commenced.
The name “Allenbuild” adorned the fencing and to be honest meant nothing to us. However, on investigation we discovered that they were (and still are) one of the top 30 construction company’s in the UK. Based in Wigan, Allenbuild employs 500 personnel and has an impressive annual turnover of £180 million. We introduced ourselves to Ian Chadwick who was the Senior Buyer overseeing the contract and he duly sent us the sub-contract enquiry which we received on the 8th February 2001. When the documents were examined, we discovered the enormity of the job.
It was a concrete tile specification which was favoured towards Marley. However, when we made the call to the Marley Representative at the time, he appeared unenthusiastic and the tile price given to us seemed to be uncompetitive. As discussions with Allenbuild continued we also discovered that he was unwilling to offer any assistance or support with our tender. Therefore, with the permission of Allenbuild, we approached Redland Roofing Systems (now Lafarge). With the considerable support of then Redland rep Steve Gulliver, we were in the driving seat for the contract conclusively beating our normal competitors on price, tender presentation and negotiation skills. A pre-contract meeting was set for the 18th April 2001.
The meeting was attended by Ray Wilson (Site Manager), Alan Moss (Allenbuild NW office contact) and a slightly nervous Graham Barker. The meeting proved to be a success and the contract signed, programme given and hand shakes all-round. Graham left the meeting high in emotion knowing that this was a pivotal time for J W Lewis and one meeting he would never forget. Steve Gulliver was overjoyed at the news; rumour has it that Marley weren’t. In fact, the following day, both the Marley Sales Manager and Area Representative turned up at our offices – sorry chaps, too late!! At this point, we must stress that the working relationship between J W Lewis and Marley has gone from strength to strength in recent times and we thank the current rep, Tim Jackson, for his continual hard working support and assistance.
The roof area of the hospital was a massive 8159 square metres which equated to approxmiately 82,000 Mini Stonewold concrete interlocking tiles with dry fix compenents to 350m verge, 335m hip, 208m ridge and 200m of mono ridge. We also executed all the leadwork to 374m side abutments and 519m of top edge abutments. The majority of the roof was superbly executed by Jason Matthews, an expert roof tiler/slater with bucket loads of experience. Jason was ably assisted by Andrew Braddick and various others during the contract. Jason also had a busy time at home as his lovely wife Donna gave birth to their third child, Adam, during the contract. Luckily, it was between phases, so Jason was happily granted leave to spend time changing nappies and playing with Adam’s toys.
Allenbuild also offered us the ACT building which was built during 2002. This smaller roof was still over 1000 square metres and was again carried out by Jason and Andrew.
Bodmin PFI hospital has been to date, one of the largest one-off contracts in Cornwall and all at J W Lewis remain thrilled at being awarded such a prestigous contract and are extremely proud of the way it was executed. It certainly proved, and will continue to show all existing and potential new clients that we have the ability and experience to fulfil major and high pressure contracts to a highest standard of workmanship. In support of this statement, we would add that we were also fulfilling another very large contract at the same time at Tolvaddon Energy Park for Midas Construction Ltd (shown separately).
The total contract value for Bodmin PFI hospital finished at £189K (exc VAT).