Salford’s Excellent student residences open their doors

University of Salford has officially opened its new £81M steel-framed student accommodation complex that features 1,367 en-suite bedrooms and has an on-site cinema room, gym, TV and games room, group study lounges and a launderette.

Consisting of nine individual steel-framed blocks spread over two plots, Walter Watson, working on behalf of main contractor Graham Construction, fabricated, supplied and erected 1,900t of structural steelwork for the project [see NSC November/December 2014].

“We looked at both steel and concrete options for this project and steel was best because it is quicker to erect and more efficient as it helped us design buildings with lots of structural repetition,” said Cundall Principal Structural Engineer Dan Bradley.

Steelwork’s speed of construction was highlighted by the fact that Walter Watson erected the entire steel package in just 16 weeks. The company worked simultaneously on both plots with two gangs each using a 60t capacity mobile crane and two MEWPs with 43m-high reaches.

As well as steel erection, Walter Watson also coordinated the installation of precast stairs, edge protection and the setting out of the metal decking packs in readiness for their installation.