Client: Eli Lilly & Co
Location: Windlesham, UK
Sector/Industry: Pharmaceuticals
Completion: 2020 – 2021
Project Background
Based in Surrey, the site was home to neuroscience research for the company for over 50 years. The closure in 2020 was linked to a global review of the R&D business, when the R&D function was moved to a site in the United States. The site was then sold to UCB to refurbish and develop into a new R&D Hub.
Decontamination Challenges
The neuroscience research facility needed to be decontaminated, decommissioned and engineering work carried out to allow for the sale of the site.
- Over the years a wide range of hazardous chemical substances were used in the processes and therefore a full chemical analysis of, at the time of closure, largely unknown chemicals and biological hazards was required. A strategy of ‘assuming the worst-case possible’ approach was adopted until proven safe to do otherwise. This included the requirement for full respiratory and personal protective equipment to be worn during the decontamination processes.
- The task was further complicated due to significant level of confined space entry required into extraction ductwork to ensure that it was demonstrably decontaminated to allow entry into the scrap recovery market.
- It was critical that the decontamination and removal process did not interfere with or damage adjacent services or building fabric.
Solutions
RVA provided the following deliverables and services:
- Fulfilled the CDM duty holder role of Principal Designer (UK legislative requirement) for both vacuum pipework, and Phase 2 decontamination packages
- Notification of the projects to UK Health & Safety Executive
- Developed a critical path road map including all site requirements and packages
- Developed and agreed a waste management and disposal strategy
- Review of returned tenders and undertook a gap analysis to produce recommendations for further investigations as required
- Facilitated decontamination hazard workshop (HAZDEM) to allow compilation of both CDM pre-construction information pack and health and safety plan (PCI Spec)
- Specification of works, agreed form of contract, bid clarification interviews with 3 suppliers to ensure compliant tenders received
- Provided proactive specialist project management, CDM Principal Designer, monitored progress, audited on site works to ensure compliance
- Undertook the role of permit issuer to all contractors on site
Outcome & Client Benefit
The project was successfully delivered ahead of programme, but more importantly the project was delivered to a demanding timescale with no accidents, incidents or loss of containment.
Please find below the before and after photos.
Client Testimonial
On behalf of Eli Lilly and Company, I would like to pass on my sincere thanks for the work you undertook to get our 47 acre research and development site at Windlesham ready for sale.
Lilly confirmed the site was to be sold in January 2020 with the majority of my engineering team leaving in May 2020. This left a very small, retained team to manage the decontamination and engineering works required for the sale which was going to prove a challenge to deliver the works to the aggressive timeline of 10 months. We engaged with RVA primarily to be the project managers for work and to assume the CDM Principal Designer role but we soon discovered they had become our de facto quantity surveyor, technical advisor, safety consultant and trusted partner. The RVA project manager quickly became embedded in the team, taking a lead role in working with the retained Lilly team and the remote RVA Operations Manager to very quickly but together a comprehensive and robust tender package, take it through competitive tender and award the contract. RVA then project managed this challenging project through to successful completion and was able to deal with scope and timeline changes that came our way.
RVA’s attention to detail, commitment to safety and experience in this work was second to none and they were key to bringing in the project to time and budget, and more importantly with no accidents or near misses. Their level of rigour, including regular project meetings, contractor safety reviews and audits was impressive, and they also took on and managed other ad hoc engineering tasks to assist with the site closure.
I would highly recommend them to other companies conducting similar work.
