We provided project management for Portsmouth
City Council’s £23 million Spinnaker Tower project, a part of the
harbour's £84 million regeneration programmeWithin the
first year of its opening Spinnaker Tower’s dazzling design and
access to panoramic views attracted over 600,000 visitors from
Portsmouth and beyond. At 170m high, the tower stands as the
largest accessible building outside London, providing 23 miles of
splendid sights over Portsmouth city, harbour, sea and coastline.
It holds three main glass viewing decks between 100 and 110m high,
and for a gravity-defying effect, Europe’s largest glass
floor.
We were appointed by Portsmouth City Council to project manage
construction and transition into operation of the technically
challenging tower.
Challenging
The £23 million project had had a troubled procurement history.
Since its acceptance by the Millennium Commission in 1996 there had
been three false starts before Mott MacDonald became involved in
October 2002. Spinnaker Tower was constructed on a heavily
constrained site – this combined with contractual and funding
issues, added to the development's complexity. And the presence of
an operating shopping centre only a few metres from the edge of the
final building envelope meant tremendous vigilance was necessary at
all times.
We undertook full control of the project on behalf
of the client, and helped deliver the tower as soon as was
practical, to the lowest possible cost.
Through close teamworking, collaborative working and effective
communication, we helped to:
- save £2 million and six months off the predicted programme
- secure funding
- closely control budget and programme
- let all major packages
Also key to achieving this were:
- value engineering
- supply chain management
- risk management systems
- facilitation of alternative construction methodology
Facts
Some facts on Spinnaker Tower’s structure:
- The entire structure exceeds 30,000 tonnes
- The tower is established on 84 piles, the longest at 50m is
almost the height of Big Ben
- Its internal lift travels at 4m per second, reaching the decks
in a mere 30 seconds, while the external glass lift glides to the
top in 90 seconds
- The 27m spire, weighing 14 tonnes, was positioned by a
crane.
- With high winds at 115m the Tower can flex around 150mm.
- There are 570 steps from top to bottom
Success
Since its opening in October 2005 Spinnaker Tower has been an
iconic landmark on England’s south coast. This is an example of how
Mott MacDonald’s expertise in project management processes and team
management has turned a challenging project into a winner.
Testament to its success, the tower has won two prestigious awards
in 2006 from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors – the
National Award for Best Regeneration Project and Overall Project of
the Year.
