After long days of working hard or seeing the sights, visitors to London have earned a good night’s rest. So when Travelodge Hotel Limited set out to build their new-look hotel at the heart of London Docklands, Derry Ltd, having previously undertaken the Aldgate flagship hotel were their first consideration.
Contentment in the Capital
Located in the East India Dock area of London Docklands, this new addition to the Travelodge family welcomes guests with contemporary comfort after venturing to-and-from easily accessed local attractions such as the O2 Arena, ExCel London and London City Airport. The £100m+ development is the company’s first new-build premium look and feel budget luxe hotel design. This new design has been created on the success of the group’s budget chic hotel format, TravelodgePLUS and boasts 350 relaxing guest rooms fitted with air cooling units, LED mood lighting, Hansgrohe Raindance 3jet adjustable showers and bedside reading lights and charging ports. Guests can also enjoy their much-deserved downtown in the on-site bar café, restaurant and pocket park.
A tall order for relaxation
Building a 20-storey hotel over the East India Dock road tunnel is no mean feat. Construction of this gentle giant required a build over agreement with Transport for London and live monitoring of piling installed within 3m of the tunnel wall, alongside meeting GLA carbon reduction and Tower Hamlets planning S106 requirements.
Fortunately, Derry’s BIM modelling was on hand to provide efficient recommendations that enabled insightful installations early on. With these in mind, we were able to fabricate welded gas riser pipework off-site, allowing us to deliver M&E services from top-to-bottom within one day. By procuring equipment sooner, the mechanical plant could be lifted and positioned prior to the removal of the site tower crane. At the heart of this momentous build lies our independent safety consult, who held regular health and safety site discussions to ensure the wellbeing of all of our operatives.
Peace of mind for the planet
Sustainability was incredibly important for Travelodge within this build, and with Derry’s M&E services expertise, we were able to ensure that the hotel achieved an Energy Rating of A and a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ Rating,making this project the most sustainable Travelodge to date.
To do this, we incorporated renewable technologies such as high efficacy LED lighting and a Solar PV array that feeds electricity back into the building’s power network rather than drawing additional energy from the grid.
On-site parking also offered electric vehicle charging points to encourage guests to use more sustainable transport during their stay.
Heating and cooling the 350 rooms with minimal ecological impact was perhaps the most crucial consideration. We rose to the challenge by maintaining different room temperatures simultaneously with a series of high efficiency VRF air source heat pump systems, while the hotel’s hot water demands were met with a high efficiency bivalent system. The latter’s air source heat pump provided 73% of the hot water, while 98% efficient low NOX condensing gas-fired water heaters enabled the rest.
As a result, the building’s energy assessment showed a 28% reduction in carbon emissions compared to the standard emissions rate – an annual CO2 reduction of 300+ tonnes.
Work smarter, rest faster
At Derry, we pride ourselves on our collaborative approach – and our 3D Building Information Modelling (BIM) expertise embedded collaboration within every element of the project from design, architecture, structure to our services.
Regular online workshops allowed us to co-ordinate with our client and tackle any design issues before implementation, keeping the site install team continuously informed with co-ordinated designs. This not only contributed to rapid installation, but also played a key factor in enabling Travelodge’s new London Docklands location to be completed 5 months ahead of schedule ready to welcome guests in Summer 2022.
I feel so lucky as the client to have the Derry lads on board as part of the team. The attitude, approach and culture of the Derry team has been a delight to behold, from first introduction, some four years ago, to Practical Completion and beyond. They only ever see solutions, problem resolution is a given to the Derry team, without exception. They have been a driving force throughout their time on site.
They have worked well within our culture of being open, honest, straight, fair, reasonable, equitable and transparent. It has been my pleasure and privilege to work with Derry, from the first day I met them.
Andrew White, Executive Chairman, Tarragon Development