Quick cabling solution helps deliver Scottish school campus

When Castle Building Services needed to specify a cable management system for a large new-build school campus in Ayrshire, REHAU’s COMPACT Data trunking provided a fast-fit, high quality solution to help them deliver the project on time and to budget.

Castle Building Services is a specialist mechanical, electrical and plumbing services provider, established in 2002. Based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and with a satellite office in East Kilbride, the company operates across the UK, working with clients from concept, design and costing to installation, commissioning and beyond. With a trusted reputation for completing high quality projects on budget and on time, Castle Building Services was approached to deliver the electrical services for a large-scale school campus being built in Largs, Ayrshire.

Costing £44m, the purpose-built Largs Campus brings together the Largs Academy secondary school, the Largs Primary, St Mary’s Primary and the Largs Early Years Centre onto one site and provides nursery, primary and secondary schooling to more than 2,000 children locally. The Largs Campus project, commissioned by North Ayrshire Council and delivered by its development partner hub South West Scotland, was part-funded through the Scottish Government’s Schools for the Future programme and was officially opened in June 2018 by First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon.

Allan Duffy, Electrical Project Engineer at Castle Building Services, said: “A majority of our work is on large scale projects, such as schools, office spaces and hotels, so we are well versed in designing and fitting sizeable cabling installations. However, the Largs Campus project was one of the biggest we had ever been involved with and we knew that the product specification had to be right to ensure we could deliver in the timeframes and budgets required by the main contractor Morrison Construction.

“As well as being a particularly large scale installation, the Largs Campus project was also very challenging in terms of its specification requirements. LEDs were fitted throughout the 23,000m2 campus, so there was a high demand for data cabling in both the back office and classroom areas and we also needed to provide the necessary cabling for an intelligent AV style system in all of the teaching spaces. To install all these data and power cabling safely and neatly throughout the campus, we needed a flexible and easy-to-fit trunking solution.”

Castle Building Services had used REHAU’s COMPACT Data trunking on other projects in the past and was confident that the fast-fit PVC-U solution would be an ideal fit for the Largs Campus project.

Allan continued: “We were very mindful of the budget for the publicly funded project. With the COMPACT Data trunking though, we knew we could deliver a solution which offered value for money without compromising on quality or safety.”

REHAU offers a range of high quality trunking solutions for commercial and industrial use, including its best-selling COMPACT Data trunking system. Its design maximises cable spacing and can be installed 40% faster than other trunking systems available. A range of accessories are available for the trunking including flexible corners, flat angles and Tee pieces, socket boxes and corner inserts, to make installation even easier.

Made in the UK, COMPACT Data trunking can be fitted by one person, thanks to the built in guide pins and open design, which provides full cable support during installation. Measuring just 140mm x 55mm, the system offers an unobtrusive and neat finish yet is still able to take more than 30% more cable capacity than its similarly sized competitors.

Allan said: “We customised the Compact Data trunking to our needs, using a metal separator between the data and power cables. This small addition to the trunking helps to reduce interference with the data cabling and ensures the schools have access to the high-quality, reliable data services they need for day-to-day classroom and back office activities.”

COMPACT Data comes in pre-cut lengths of 3m. To complete the Largs Campus project, Castle Building Services required 1,700 lengths and installation took more than a year using a team of four fitters.

Steve Richmond, Marketing and Technical Manager for Building Solutions at REHAU, said: “Our COMPACT Data trunking has been designed to meet the needs of contractors like Castle Building Services, ensuring that the trunking and its accessories are fitted with minimal fuss. With more than 5km of cabling to install at the Largs Campus, having a cable management product they could rely on ensured Castle Building Services were able to finish the installation on the flagship schools project on time and within budget.”