Triumphant fanfare for Royal College of Music & BSRIA collaborative project 

BSRIA was tasked with undertaking a condition survey of M&E services by the Royal College of Music (RCM).

This action plan highlighted the condition of the plant, life cycle in remaining years of use of the services, budget cost estimates for replacement plant and systems and a programme of recommended works for up to 25 years.

Such successfully completed independent assessments will allow the RCM to plan, prioritise assets’ repair, replacement and maintenance work for the next quarter of a century.

The project included the evaluation of installed building services against published sources of life expectancy. BSRIA engineers collected information from a variety of sources for a robust condition survey. The information collection process followed by the BSRIA engineers included:

• Visual inspection of all building service assets to assess physical condition.

•  Specialist inspections – including lifts testing, thermal imaging and water sample testing.

•  Collection of information held in operation and maintenance records.

A total number of 118 major assets were inspected during the survey throughout the site by BSRIA engineers, including: boilers; radiators; water pumps; chillers; air handling units; air conditioning units; water tanks; lightning protection system; fire alarm systems; intruder alarms; lighting; emergency lighting; and lifts.

Peter Tse, Business Manager – Sustainable Construction Group, BSRIA, said: "This bespoke evaluation approach allowed the Royal College of Music to make informed decisions for their building services assets aligned to business requirements.

"The condition survey also involved examination of any existing maintenance records together with regularly staged discussions with maintenance staff to provide greater insights to the history of plant, maintenance problems, plant breakdowns and repairs undertaken.

"This project provided BSRIA with a chance to flex its expertise for condition surveys and asset management to ensure the outcomes supported future capital and operation investments by the Royal College of Music, including an ongoing £40 million building development to provide new state-of-the-art facilities.

"This project heralds optimal levels of performance of building assets, and of course, musical performance for the next 25 years.” 

Jason Perry, Deputy Head of Estates, Royal College of Music, said it was very important for the Royal College of Music to be proactive on environmental issues and make sure it is doing all we it can to reduce energy usage.

"The BSRIA survey will assist us in ensuring that we prioritise this and replace equipment that is negatively affecting our environmental impact," he added. "The findings will play an integral part in our long term maintenance strategy, helping us to shape the RCM’s goals and needs.”

Upon completion of the site based activities, information was analysed and a detailed report with findings and recommendations was issued to the client to support commercial decisions for the estate.