13th November 2018
Following the opening of a new ambulance station at Ballymena, the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) have constructed a new ambulance station with associated staff facilities, training suite, garaging and car parking on the site of the old Erne Hospital in Enniskillen.
The total area of the site is 0.7 Hectares. The gross floor area of the office area is 438 m2. The garage and stores area is a further 900 m2.
The building is designed to reach BREEAM Excellent status and is anticipated to achieve a score of 70.5%. BREEAM is the world’s foremost environmental assessment method and rating system for buildings. This BREEAM rating has been achieved through the use of innovative features such as a biomass boiler, high quality insulation and LED lighting. BREEAM sets the standard for best practice in sustainable building design, construction and operation and has become one of the most comprehensive and widely recognised measures of a building’s environmental performance. It encourages designers, clients and others to think about low carbon and low impact design, minimising the energy demands created by a building before considering energy efficiency and low carbon technologies.
A BREEAM assessment uses recognised measures of performance, which are set against established benchmarks, to evaluate a building’s specification, design, construction and use. The measures used represent a broad range of categories and criteria from energy to ecology. They include aspects related to energy and water use, the internal environment (health and well-being), pollution, transport, materials, waste, ecology and management processes.
The total project cost is estimated to be £4,574,000. The construction cost is expected to be £2,427,000.
The building is heated with a biomass boiler with an oil boiler providing backup heat only. This arrangement minimises the carbon footprint of the building. Thermal energy consumption is expected to be 544,440 kWhr per year.
Building electricity consumption is predicted to be 97,720 kWhr per annum.
The predicted water usage is 324 m3 /year.
The new building will provide considerably improved accommodation for NIAS crews and will help NIAS improve the standard of service offered to the Community in Enniskillen and surrounding areas. The new station extends and builds upon the NIAS identity created at the Ballymena station with the colour scheme reflecting the NIAS brand. It is anticipated that the colour scheme and associated design elements will continue to be used on future construction works. This will help put NIAS forward as an important civic entity and elevate its status among the wider public.