Mezzanine & Decking Expands UK Laboratory To Provide Extra Cold Storage

The Project

The requirement was to optimise the existing space in order to handle the increased demand for the lab's services. We accomplished this by installing a mezzanine floor and decking to an existing first-floor level.

Our Client

Our Client for this project was Climate Projects, leading design and build specialists, who were contracted by UK Biocentre, whose laboratories in Milton Keynes are being used to analyse test samples to support the national effort against Covid-19.

The Challenge

In March 2020 the UK Government commissioned UK Biocentre to provide testing services for coronavirus samples. At this point UK Biocentre decided that their existing laboratory in Milton Keynes would be repurposed in order to expand their capacity to analyse swab samples at scale.

Climate Projects, were engaged by UK Biocentre to expand the existing laboratory space to accommodate the additional medical refrigerator sample storage required. This would be accomplished by repurposing the existing space.

We received an enquiry from our client, Climate Projects who had retrieved our information from the ‘as-built’ records for the laboratory which listed USS as having originally supplied and installed the first floor of the laboratory facility at UK Biocentre.

We had an initial site meeting to discuss the project. Our client provided us with drawings outlining their requirements. We adapted these to provide final drawings for the design, manufacture and installation of a new mezzanine floor and decking.

Our completed drawings and our quotation were sent to Climate Projects and our proposal was accepted. Once our quote was accepted we went ahead and produced the fabrication drawings and manufactured and installed the new mezzanine floor and decking.

The biggest challenge we faced was to install the new mezzanine whilst negotiating the established ducting and trusses. This was accomplished by disconnecting the existing electrics from the roof while the new steel frame for the floor was installed. Once the floor frame was in-situ, the electrics were reconnected to the new mezzanine steel.

The build schedule had to ensure the floor would be completed and fully operational as soon as possible given the urgent requirement to fulfill the accelerated testing regime UK Biocentre had been commissioned to provide.

Most importantly, throughout the build, the laboratory staff needed to be able to carry out their work with as little obstruction or hindrance as possible.

And Finally

The new mezzanine has increased the lab’s cold-storage capacity to meet the demand for Covid-19 test analysis. The Centre now handles testing on a huge scale (around 67,500 samples a day) and continues to expand.