The extension to Queensgate Shopping Centre created a vibrant, cultural and entertainment hub for local residents and visitors. Playfords provided essential building services and infrastructureu pgrades to support the new facilities.
Playfords were appointed the Electrical and Mechanical packages by main contractor McLaren Construction, this significant project within Peterborough’s Queensgate Shopping Centre seeing the refurbishment and 14,000 sq. ft extension of the existing shopping centre footprint to add multiple new tenant retail and hospitality spaces along with anew 40,000 sq. ft cinema complex. Landlords front of house and back of house areas were constructed to facilitate the major extension works; built on top of the existing roof level to add a further three levels.Planning and programming of works was key throughout the project works; services integration to see new installations incorporated into the existing shopping centre’s electrical and mechanical systems whilst ensuring the shopping centre and its many stores remained functional during customer opening hours. As part of the project an existing landlord’s electrical substation located on the roof had to see re-location to facilitate the proposed shopping centre extension to be built.A new substation saw construction and the services migrations commenced. A new transformer and LV switchboard were incorporated into the existing landlords HV power network to allow the existing supplies to be migrated over.
Electrical and Mechanical services located across the existing roof area where the proposed new extension building foot print fell also saw relocation, many serving individual shop units within the centre and involving strategic planning around trading times to ensure customer experience was not compromised. The project also included a new front of house lighting scheme utilising a preformed trough lighting system built into the front of house foyer ceilings on each new level; a striking entrance feature to enhance customer experience. Playfords were also responsible for several supply chain partners, installing new and making alterations to existing ventilation systems, water supplies, gas supplies, rain water drainage, foul drainage, air conditioning, BMS integration, new smoke ventilation grills / smoke curtains, structured IT cabling, fibre-optic backbone installation, lightning protection, back of house lighting, sprinkler systems, fire alarms, access control, public address system and CCTV installations across this development.This large-scale MEP delivery challenged the Playfords team and its supply chain at times, from the initial design concept meetings, on site build compromises and the significant challenges to keep ‘live’ electrical and mechanical services available to the retail outlets throughout the project all overcome by our pro-active team of both managers and engineering staff.