Offsite construction on the mark for Bailey

Trailers are hitting the road to carry sections of the £150m dairy, piece by piece, from Bradford to a site in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, where it will help to ensure that Britons have a constant supply of milk.

It’s part of Ilkley-based building services firm NG Bailey’s commitment to off-site construction, a process which is safer and quicker than conventional building methods because the site is protected from the unpredictable British weather.

NG Bailey has started work on a £60m contract at Leeds-based Arla’s new flagship dairy in Aylesbury.

NG Bailey has delivered 17 pre-fabricated modules to the site to create the dairy’s main services distribution corridor.

Each of the 12m long, 3.5m wide modules has been designed and constructed at NG Bailey’s offsite facility in Bradford, and delivered to the site on trailers.

When bolted together, the modules will form a main services distribution centre for the new dairy.

By using offsite construction methods, NG Bailey has delivered the spine corridor project in just five weeks, compared to the 12 weeks it would have taken using more traditional construction methods.

Speaking about the project, Paul Beeton, project leader at NG Bailey, said: “This is a flagship project for us and the delivery of the spine corridor marks our first phase of work at Arla’s dairy.

“Constructing the modules at our offsite facility in Bradford and then trucking them to Aylesbury has massively reduced the time it’s taken us to deliver the corridor compared to traditional installation methods.

“It has also helped eliminate safety risks on site and improved quality control.

“Smooth delivery of each module was an important element of this part of the job and we worked closely with Arla to ensure a strict traffic plan was adhered to, which avoided neighbouring villages and eliminated any disruption to local residents.”

Once complete, the dairy will be one of the most environmentally advanced in the world, with the capacity to process one billion litres of milk a year.

NG Bailey, which has 3,000 staff, has been contracted to provide all mechanical and electrical work on the site, as well as the facilities management contract.