Our latest projects and other interesting news can be found in our newsletter, Austin Update 2020/21.

Click here to view the Update

For more information call Austin on +44 (0) 1923 432 658
or email enquiries@austin.co.uk

Our latest projects and other interesting news can be found in our newsletter, Austin Update 2019/20.

Click here to view the Update

For more information call Austin on +44 (0) 1923 432 658
or email enquiries@austin.co.uk

In recognition of everyone’s efforts and commitments Austin has achieved the 12th consecutive RoSPA Gold Award (and our third consecutive President’s Award) for continued excellence in Health & Safety. This coveted honour has been earned by demonstrating excellence in the continued development and implementation of Health & Safety Management Systems that aim to exceed legislative requirements and promote Health and Wellbeing through the company’s continuous improvement programme. The company’s ethos has provided a foundation that has shaped positive attitudes and high standards of Health & Safety throughout all operations and within our supply chain.

Our Cultural Health & Safety programme forms a major part of the company’s mission to continually improve and provide a safer workplace with enhanced standards of Health & Safety and Health & Wellbeing. This positive philosophy has led to an ethos where attitudes and beliefs within all staff provide a firm foundation for legislative compliance and beyond, thus providing H&S excellence and exemplary performance.

Austin also prides itself on an exemplary programme of Behavioural Health & Safety that has been successfully integrated in all business areas. Our goals include continually evolving operational practices and focusing on providing clients with textbook management practices whilst actively promoting worker engagement in all aspects of workplace tasks.

We thank all our staff and supply chain for embracing Austin’s aims and Cultural Health & Safety philosophy in promoting excellent Health & Safety Practices and management systems.

Graham Stewart – Health and Safety Manager

The last few months has allowed us to reflect on where time goes. Austin has been operating in the UK for over 80 years and this week we celebrate 15 years since our management buyout. Over time we have strived to be the most trusted partner for delivering challenging and complex projects and the past six months have been both challenging and complex. Looking to the near future, the situation promises to be the same, and so will we.

During the recent difficulties, we have managed to not only carry on supporting our existing clients but also support our friends, colleagues and clients. To do this we have grown our team and managed to get everyone back into the office in a safe and orderly manner. The work environment that we have created has brought added benefits to our daily routine, as we continue to support our staff both in and out of the office.

I can’t thank the staff enough for their ability to deliver such excellent work during this challenging time, and it is testament to their hard work and dedication that has enabled us to carry on functioning in the way we do.

Going forward we feel privileged and honoured to be working on prestigious current projects. It’s with great pride that we are able to help our clients with their monumental tasks ahead.

Thank you,

Prakash Davda

At Austin we continue supporting both our Client’s design requests and their operational needs on site during these challenging times due to COVID-19. This is whilst maintaining safety and social distancing requirements on our construction sites and during necessary client site visits in developing design solutions.

We thank our clients in supporting us in this unprecedented times and being resourceful, including of-course our Supply chain, Design & Construction staff’s innovative ideas and solutions in helping to maintain the highest level of requirements for operational safety. This has allowed us to progress the works safely over the last number of weeks and given us ample learning opportunities for improvements in a changed operational approach going forward.

Prakash Davda
Managing Director

We are pleased to inform you that in association with International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineers (ISPE) and GW Pharmaceuticals we are participating in a tour of the recently constructed facility in Sittingbourne. The project includes a small scale and the first large scale commercial manufacturing facility for CBD products in the UK, to support the recently approved Epidiolex® treatment for types of childhood epilepsy.

Please see attached profile and should you wish to attend please book your place via the ISPE links below:-

ISPE events: Here

Directly to our event: Here

BPL required a dedicated HVAC system to serve a new Grade C Fill line suite in an existing live and operational area within a very tight schedule. This was in order to provide resilience for future productions and operations.
BPL’s ambition was that the work had to be undertaken in a single shutdown hence this would necessitated extensive surveys of the existing facilities.
The scope of the works had to be developed to allow a workable solution involving manufacturer’s deliveries of plant, offloading and craneage onto an existing roof within a live environment.
Careful and detailed planning was required to:

• Ensure that the design would allow works to progress to the agreed time scales and budget.
• Confirm that each piece of the `jigsaw’ was in place as any minor delay would impact and jeopardise the entire project programme and production commitments.
• Provide sufficient detailed planning to Interface with BPL’s users and production demands to ensure that the solution met the requirements. The complete works had to be planned and installed such that the work can be undertaken in a single shutdown

Austin assembled an experienced team with knowledge and skills of delivering such a technically complex project. This would allow the works to be planned in detail to execute the requirements within the very tight time constraints required by BPL.

The technical solution included new AHU, chillers, pump sets, utility modifications, clean & process steam, ductwork modification and Building & Environmental management system extending to power and controls wiring.
This overall solution included:
New air handling unit being installed onto a new roof mounted steel platform together with a packaged chiller unit.
Ductwork routes being carefully chosen and coordinated around the facilities to allow it to pass through heavily congested existing services. This extended to routing across the roof and dropping through the existing structure into the service floor.
Site measure was required for most of the ductworks during the day with drawings issued to the manufacturer to fabricate and deliver the next day for installation to continue.
All ductwork was installed prior to the shutdown and the connection left ready for the final stage.
The final works was undertaken during a twelve day engineering maintenance and operations shutdown scheduled for works to change over the systems from the existing to the new. The required works was carried out during this period with 50 other trades onsite undertaking other maintenance and project works.
The planning extended to twice daily meetings with all trades to monitor, track progress, coordinate installation quality and agree the finer details.
Works were completed on time and the systems validated by the BPL’s independent team with the facility operational on programme as scheduled by production.

Having won and undertaken a number of projects for the Medical Research Council (MRC) at its various research sites in The Gambia, we were delighted to win the competitive tender for providing MRC with a multidisciplinary design and project management services for their new build Molecular Research Laboratory at Fajara.
MRC is a publicly funded organisation supporting approximately 5,700 research scientists dedicated to improving public health. MRC is active in The Gambia as the UK’s single largest investor in medical research in a developing country.
The growing demands placed on the Unit in Fajara had highlighted the need to review, analyse and update the facilities available and make provision for the extended scientific needs of the organisation. The Unit’s research focuses on infectious diseases of immediate concern to The Gambia and the continent of Africa, with the aim of reducing the burden of illness and death in the country and the developing world as a whole.
The extent of the scientific research portfolio undertaken at the Unit spans immunology, microbiology, virology and molecular biology. In addition to these, the Unit extends its research capabilities with training, clinical studies, large epidemiological studies and intervention trials.
MRC’s new laboratory area requirement was approximately 860m2 with a further 370m2 of office and support space. The work in the molecular diagnostic follows stringent procedures and sequences to ensure reliability of the diagnostic and data produced. It was therefore a critical requirement that the design enabled this one-directional flow and as far as reasonably practical prevent any activities against this work process direction.

With temperatures ranging from 16°C to 43°C and humidity rising to 95% and 1.3 meters of rain in most of the country there are significant challenges in order to adhere to critical laboratory requirements relating to stable temperature, pressure and humidity. Furthermore the facility needed to comply to sustainability measures relating to energy and the environment and, as importantly, a design solution that recognise minimal local engineering skills and suitable building materials and equipment in The Gambia.
Austin undertook a concept study that formed the basis of the business case to request funding for the construction of the laboratory. An optioneering study was carried out concluding with a design approach that located the lab areas on the ground floor and the office areas at first floor level. This has the benefit of closer collaboration between scientists on the first floor, mitigating solar gain with perimeter circulation whilst maintaining sensitive lab equipment and materials on the ground floor.
A buildability review was carried out based on our previous experience with buildings in The Gambia for the MRC.
The building has been designed for future use around a design philosophy of a centralised lab zone and perimeter circulation allowing the building to be increased in length with minimal disruption should an increase in floor space be required in the future.
The lab planning module and consequential structural grid will allow the lab zone to be reconfigured to achieve different layouts with minimal alteration to the building structure in the future.
By responding directly to the local climatic conditions, this building offers excellent potential for being considered a ‘Distinctly Gambian’ building.

Porton Biopharma Ltd, (PBL) wished to relocate both their existing Down Stream Process (DSP) and Fermentation units to a new facility within the existing PBL site. The relocation was part of addressing regulatory concerns and providing a flexible facility, whilst implementing current requirement and adapting to future requirements.
Relocating the DSP and Fermentation units into a purpose designed facility to allow improvements, collaborative working and operational efficiencies.
The facility was designed:

• In close proximity to other related units of circa 600m2 to accommodate scientist dedicated to developing and improving methods used in pharmaceutical manufacturing of life saving products
• As a stand-alone single storey building, it was designed to be capable of incorporating an additional storey to facilitate future expansion requirements with minimum impact.
• To reflect modern best practices in design of a fermentation suite with a range of bench-scale reactors and downstream processing suite for activities such as filtration and chromatography.

Austin worked with the two user group representatives and developed: a solution of the proposed requirements with the required material and personnel flows; a layout for Down Stream Process and Fermentation units.
Each room was designed with finishes suitable for an Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) Containment Level 2 (CL2) classified area and the cleaning regime requirements.
Six fermenters required steam, compressed air, chilled water, water, reverse osmosis water, nitrogen and oxygen. Distribution of these services as well as all branch valves were located in the service corridor to allow pipe work in the fermenter room to be kept to a minimum.
Chilled water for space cooling and process cooling was expanded from a site-wide system. Hydraulic separation was achieved via a plate heat exchanger. Space cooling and process cooling required different temperatures and this was provided by two pumped circuits.
Steam for space heating and process heating was also expanded from a site-wide system. Heat was transferred to an LTHW system via a plate heat exchanger for space heating, whilst steam for process heating was supplied via a pressure reducing valve.
Due to the new building being downhill from the site condensate main, a condensate recovery unit was provided to pump the condensate out of the building.
The fermenter area was classified as a Class II. A pressure cascade was required whereby air flows from outer rooms, in to the Class II. This was achieved by statically balancing the ventilation system to provide 10 Pa steps between rooms.
The extract from the Class II was provided with HEPA filtration to filter out biologically hazardous material from the air.
The project was developed using Revit (BIM), to provide greater coordination and collaboration between the design and construction team; identifying clashes and risk mitigation throughout the design process, whilst reassuring a high level of certainty as the project progressed to construction.
Austin designed, procured, constructed and commissioned the facility to meet PBL’s stringent requirements.

Austin has this year been presented with its eleventh consecutive RoSPA Gold Award and its second consecutive RoSPA President’s Award. This is a testament to the company’s commitment to Health & Safety. Our ethos and dedication to promoting behavioural safe-ty has enhanced best practice in continuous improvement not only in the safety but also in the health and wellbeing of all staff, on site and in office.
The positive culture has yielded excellent results in operational H&S standards throughout all operations and forms an integral part of the company’s charter.
Focused on maintain and continuously improving our standards, both in H&S and craftsmanship, we actively encourage staff partic-ipation and engagement in all aspects of our operations, whether in-house, on site or third party locations.