Russell WBHO of Manchester has been awarded the contract to build a new £30 million supercomputing center at Daresbury Laboratory in the Liverpool city region. Russell WBHO is preparing to begin work on the 6.2-acre site for the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). It is planned to begin before the end of the year and will take 21 months to complete.
The contract was awarded after a competitive tender process conducted under the Crown Commercial Services Framework. Russell WBHO’s specialist team will oversee the construction of the 33,000-square-foot building. It will house two data halls that must be kept at 21-24 degrees. Additionally, it will also have an office suite with ancillary facilities.
The structure will be steel-framed, with composite cladding forming the external envelope. Russell WBHO will collaborate with data center M&E consultants Sudlows, as well as project management consultant Arcadis, architect AEW, structural engineers Healy Consulting, and environmental consultancy E3P.
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Construction of supercomputing center at Daresbury Laboratory
“We are particularly glad to secure this contract with STFC for the new supercomputing center at Daresbury Laboratory. This is following a multi-way tender process via the Crown Commercial Services Framework,” said Nick Sunderland, commercial director for Russell WBHO.
“Our involvement in the planning and pre-construction phases, combined with our extensive knowledge of highly specialized industrial and temperature-controlled facilities like this, has enabled us to present a viable budgeted program to deliver this scheme.”
The new supercomputing facility will support the Hartree National Centre for Digital Innovation (HNCDI) program. The program is a £210 million collaboration between STFC Hartree Centre and IBM. Consequently, it provides the industry with access to cutting-edge digital technologies and expertise.
The Hartree Centre’s supercomputing facilities are dedicated to industrial applications. They house some of the UK’s most advanced technologies in computing, data science, and artificial intelligence (AI). Specialist expertise and supercomputers are available to UK businesses. Thus, it will help to increase productivity and reduce the time and cost of developing new products.
