Glebe Farm School, Milton Keynes, UK

This school project utilised Gripple Fast Trak, Cable Basket Clips and Concrete Screws to suspend electrical containment throughout the development. Fast Trak is a quick bracket suspension solution and was selected as it helps to reduce labour intensive activity associated with traditional suspension systems, whilst providing a reduction in embodied carbon.

  • Building Type: Education
  • Main Contractor: Morgan Sindall
  • Subcontractor: Munro Building Services
  • Services: Electrical Containment 
“The level of service we’ve received from Gripple has been great! From speaking to the electricians on-site using Fast Trak on a day-to-day basis they can’t speak highly enough of the system."
Site Manager, Morgan Sindall

Glebe Farm School is located on a 95,000 sqm, three-storey site in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire - the education facility is an all-through school that can accommodate over 1,500 pupils aged 5 to 16 and will provide a workplace for 170 members of staff. An on-site nursery will also be built into the campus. The school is scheduled to welcome its first pupils from September 2022. Main contractor, Morgan Sindall, appointed Munro Building Services as M&E subcontractor for this project.

Munro selected Gripple's Fast Trak system to suspend electrical containment on-site as Fast Trak significantly sped up their build programme while also reducing embodied carbon as traditional and cumbersome M&E suspension systems were not used as a result.

Fast Trak is a pre-fabricated, off-site M&E suspension solution that vastly simplifies the installation of electrical containment, pipework and ductwork in building services applications. Fast Trak was selected on this project because it helped to reduce labour intensive on-site activity associated with traditional suspension systems.

A challenge on-site at Glebe Farm was the different drop lengths needed throughout. Fast Trak was able to negate this potential issue, as adjustments can easily be made by moving the bracket up and down the tracks in 10 mm increments using the patented four-way latch on the side of the Fast Trak bracket. Traditional methods such as threaded rod and channel supports would have led to numerous hours of material preparation such as filing and cutting threaded rod and channel. Fast Trak brackets are supplied in pre-fabricated lengths and in packs of five to ensure minimal material preparation is required on-site.

Speaking on the delivery of this project, Josh Bloomfield, Gripple Area Sales Manager said: “We had an initial meeting with Munro Building Services to find out exactly what they wanted to help deliver the project. With this information, we were able to feedback to our Technical Services team back at our head office in Sheffield. We were then able to provide detailed project design drawings along with up-front labour, material weight and embodied carbon savings as part of our proposed solution to Munro before Fast Trak was selected for this project." Along with Fast Trak, Munro saw the benefit of using Gripple's Cable Basket Clips to securely and efficiently fasten cable baskets to Fast Trak brackets throughout the build.

Gripple have a national network of distribution partners throughout the UK & Ireland. Speaking on the distribution relationship with Gripple, the Cambridge Manager for Edmundson Electrical said: "It has been great to work alongside Gripple to push such an innovative product. Not only does it reduce the install time for the contractor, but the reduction in the carbon footprint is also a big win. In a time where environmental impact is at the forefront of our decision-making process, it is great to have manufacturers within our network who are leading the way."

  Gripple solution Traditional method
Overview Fast Trak, Cable Basket Clips and Concrete Screws Channel, threaded rod and channel nuts
Installation Time 494 hours 1,437 hours
Total Material Weight 2,073 kg 3,377 kg
Labour Rate (Per Hour) £25 £25
Total embodied CO2 4,706 kg 7,666 kg
Total labour cost £12,350 £35,925
“On this job we were putting different sizes of cable baskets onto the Fast Trak brackets. Thankfully Gripple’s Fast Trak brackets come pre-cut to certain lengths and Gripple’s drawings were all set up for us. The brackets and baskets fit together seamlessly and their Cable Basket Clips simply twist in by hand, making the speed of installation brilliant!”
Electrical Site Supervisor, Munro Building Services
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Tags: Building Services

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