Overcoming the Odds: How Kane Group Leveraged Technology to Tackle a Complex Project

When Kane Group Building Services designed, prefabricated, and installed the £12 million Basement Energy Centre and Basement Works project for the Claridge’s Hotel in London, it did so leveraging some leading-edge technologies to ensure success.

The massive expansion project consisted of combined heat and power systems, gas fired boilers, chillers and plate heat exchangers—earning the project the title of “Britain’s Biggest Iceberg Basement.” But completing the work was not easy, especially considering some key challenges, including:

• Maintaining collaboration between construction teams; some working five stories underground, others aboveground on the project site, offsite prefabrication teams and back-of-house operations at Kane’s Northern-Ireland offices
• Maintaining consistently updated data and documentation among these teams, including permitting, health and safety records, and assembly, maintenance and commissioning documents
• Logistics of getting prefabricated materials to and from the project site and installed properly

Indeed, this marked one of Kane’s most logistically challenging projects to date. But thanks to a technology-forward approach and the help of solutions from Trimble Viewpoint, it delivered for its client. The Energy Centre project was largely prefabricated at Kane’s head office workshop, then transported and lifted into position via a 3M x 3.4M opening to access the underground levels.

Kane utilised a state-of-the-art software solution suite that aided with visual programming, solving complex problems, and made user-defined tools to assist in design and documentation workflows throughout the project.

The outcome of the project was a huge success as using Viewpoint For Projects, Trimble Viewpoint’s cloud-based project management solution, Kane was able to streamline all drawings and documents used throughout the project. This encompassed 247 drawings and 430 prefabrication drawings. Through this streamlined efficiency, Kane was able to work quicker, reduce project risks and overcome the project's complex logistical challenges, surpassing expectations.

Kane also utilised Viewpoint Field View, Trimble Viewpoint’s mobile onsite tool, to generate more than 2000 QR codes which were printed and attached to plant assets, whilst working with more than 17 different contractors throughout the Claridge’s project. This made the project even more unique and, due to the huge number of plant items, Kane can now easily identify the assets so future maintenance checks can easily be recorded.

Through innovation and advancement across all in-house capabilities – achieving streamlined efficiency – Kane successfully delivered the challenging Claridge’s Hotel project, surpassing owner expectations and leading to an extended scope of work for hotel projects.

“From the very first meeting, when project stakeholders explained their vision and what they were trying to deliver for Claridge’s, we were hooked on the project,” said Cathal McMullan, managing director of Kane. “The end results speak for themselves.”