Longford Garda Station

Longford Garda Station, on behalf of OPW / Elliott Properties

Challenge

An extension and refurbishment of Longford Garda Station required a blend of general and specialist electrical contracting services. A complex electrical specification and fit-out was to be delivered in a live environment, prioritising the safety of staff, the public and detainees. The new extension, extending to 350 squared meters, required a full high spec and specialist fitout for four new detainee cells, two interview rooms and corridors, while areas of the existing building were marked for refurbished and repurposed into offices requiring a range of electrical work from general to niche CCTV, alarm and security systems. With the next extension being added, several electrical security and safety systems needed to connected to existing systems while some systems required standalone set-up and restricted access.

As Longford Garda Station was a live environment, extensive project planning, scheduling and testing of all works was required to prevent any unnecessary downtime, closures or impact to what is a 24x7 public access and service facility. Given the blend of both general and niche/specialist electrical contracting services required, the requirement for exact adherence to challenging specifications, and the live environment nature, the OPW went to tender for the project. Following a competitive process, Callaghan Electrical was awarded the project and committed to delivering the project under a challenging timeline.

Solution

For both the extension and refurbishment works, general electrical contract work was required including cabling, trunking/conduit, replacement of some distribution boards, switchgear and effective labelling. Callaghan Electrical also wired the mechanical plant, equipment and generator, provided services for data and phone installation, communication cabinets and CAT-6 cable testing.

Specialist services included a range of fire detection [heat/smoke], alarm and emergency/strobe lighting testing and commission, specialist security systems set up and install including prisoner processing CCTV, general internal/external CCTV, intruder alarm, high specification access control and intercoms systems. The prisoner processing CCTV system was set up as a self-contained audio and visual system and the interview room system set up with microphone, visual and audio technology.

Custody areas required audio/video recording and in some cases standalone units with separate digital recording and restricted access. A matrix of camara views/monitoring with visuals only [no audio] was delivered for the public office area for safety of staff and users. Security was bolstered with a mix of internal and external camera, corridor and cell area cameras, charge desk camera and recording system with UPS supply.

The audio/video interview room required a high specification fit out including electrics for heating, ventilation, lighting, power outlets, cabling, general wiring, wall mounted and ceiling cameras, microphones, interview recording equipment, connection and testing. Detention cells required specialist fit out for safe, secure and easy to use cell call buttons, over cell lighting, cell fire detection system and fire alarm panel system.

Benefits

Management of 3rd party vendors e.g. ESB for mains supply, switch overs, distribution boards including advanced planning and scheduling to prevent any outages or downtime.
Blend of both general and specialist security/detainee management systems
Project delivered in a live environment on time and budget with no outages, downtime or unavailability of services to public, staff or users.

Partners

Office of Public Works | Elliott Properties | Rhatigan Architects