Atlantic Building, RAF Lossiemouth
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Summary
The home for a new fleet of high-tech submarine-hunting aircrafts
The £100 million development for Boeing is home to the new fleet of Poseidon MRA Mk1, boosting the UK’s maritime patrol capability.
The strategic facility – part of an extensive upgrade at RAF Lossiemouth to future-proof the airbase – includes a three-bay aircraft hangar for the Poseidon, crew and maintainer training facilities, flight planning facilities and workshop areas for up to 600 personnel, and squadron accommodation.
Key facts
- 33,000 m2 facility
- 1 million+ man hours worked.
- Awarded Sustainability 'Excellence', the MoD equivalent of a BREEAM rating.
- 600 new jobs will be created at RAF Lossiemouth.
The project team were on the ground at RAF Lossiemouth from April 2018, following a 12-month collaboration with Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) during preconstruction to design the state-of-the-art facility.
Robertson is no stranger to delivering projects of this magnitude and complexity, but we're especially proud of the RAF Lossiemouth strategic facility, which further underpins our capability in the defence sector. Not only was it an opportunity for us to collaborate closely with Boeing and provide unrivalled local expertise and knowledge, but it further illustrates how our delivery teams find solutions to the many challenges that are set through the design process to meet exacting and specific requirements.
Security and collaboration in a live site
As a quick reaction alert site for the north of the UK, the airbase was fully operational throughout construction and the team showed exceptional project and safety management to comply with RAF restrictions as well as our own processes. During enabling works and construction, our ongoing communication with multiple and often competing stakeholders ensured programme efficiency as the RAF continued its activities.
To give some idea of the scale of the project, up to 280 double-decker buses could park in the new building. It is the only airbase with an infrastructure similar to Jacksonville in Florida, the third-largest naval air station in the United States.
Structure overview
- 19 metres high x 165 metres long x 100 metres wide.
- 250,000 tonnes of materials excavated and retained for weather protection and visual barriers.
- 7,000 m of driven precast piles.
- 2,500 tonnes structural steel frame.
- 40,000 m3 (100,000 tonnes) of concrete, batched on-site.
- 25,000 m2 of cladding.
Community focus
- 20+ local sub-contractors from Moray region working with us.
- 25 full-time Robertson jobs created.
- 23 apprenticeships in partnership with our supply chain.
- 11 Robertson graduate apprentices taking part in traineeships
- 10 work placements for local schools and colleges
- 2,000+ local school pupils and college students engaging with our community activities.
