Press Release

Firstco's Project Management Expertise on show at Heathrow (24th July 2006)

Firstco, the technical consultancy, project management and systems integration specialists, has used its project management skills to manage the delivery of BAA Heathrow Airport Ltd’s new Airside Road Tunnels (ART) - Control and Communication Systems so that these can be managed from the airport's 'Star' Control Centre. The project required the building of a twin bore road tunnel link between the planned Heathrow Terminal 5 (T5) area to the west of the airport and the existing Central Terminal Area.

Within the main tunnel bores, Firstco needed to provide:

• Tunnel Jet fans, located in pairs at regular intervals, to provide overall tunnel ventilation in each tunnel bore
• Tunnel lighting distributed throughout the tunnel, including concentrated luminance zones near the portals and battery backed standby lighting
• A firemain running the length of each tunnel bore, with trace heating near the portals
• Steel and traywork supporting LV, data and communication cabling and luminaires
• CCTV visual coverage and traffic monitoring analysis with smoke detection
• Combined Emergency Telephones and Fire Extinguisher panels located adjacent to and between each Escape Cross Passage
• Radio re-broadcast Leaky Feeder cable
• Variable message signs on the portal ramp roads
• Fireman’s Smoke Control Panel with inter-linking telephone on both ART portals

“In addition, all mechanical and engineering (M&E) systems had to be controllable automatically,” explained Firstco’s managing director, Bill Martin. He added that, in order to make this happen, Firstco provided:

• Connection from equipment cabinets located in the ART tunnel portal load centres to provide external interfaces to the Control and Monitoring System (CMS), CCTV, Radio, Fire and Telecommunication sub-systems.
• Configuration of the existing HEART SCADA system to provide effective representation and operation of the M&E plant from the CMS for Airport Duty Engineering Managers in the Star Centre.
• Configuration of the existing HEART SCADA system to provide monitoring and operation of the new road link by Star Controllers, including traffic control and monitoring, smoke detection and other information from via the CMS.
• Expansion of the existing CCTV monitoring system or provision of an additional CCTV sub-system to provide effective visual coverage of the new road link and tunnel from within the Star Centre.
• Interfacing of the ART related emergency and maintenance telephones onto the site-wide HAL telephone system.
• Interfacing of the ART radio systems to the relevant external 'point of presence' or antenna feeds.
• Expansion and/or configuration of the existing airport fire station reporting system to integrate fire data and alarms from the tunnel fire detection system.

“Firstco was able to balance the business and operational needs of the stakeholders, BAA, Heathrow Airport Ltd and the T5 Project leadership with the requirements of meeting the deliverables of the projects - cost, time, scope, safety - to help ensure the successful delivery of this critical element of the T5 Project,” Martin stated.