Leisure
12 NSC
Annual Review
Hot and cold
A swimming pool and an ice rink are being
built within one large steel-framed structure
in Romford, presenting several challenges.
Constructing two large columnfree
spaces stacked on top of
each other may be a challenge in
itself, but if one contains a heated
swimming pool and the other an ice rink,
all of a sudden a whole host of unique issues
concerning temperature and isolation arise.
This is precisely what Willmott Dixon is
facing at Romford where, in order to fit all of
the required amenities into a tight footprint,
an ice rink is being built above a swimming
pool at a new leisure centre, something that
is said to have only been done once before
in the UK.
Working on behalf of the London
Borough of Havering, the £28M flagship
Romford Ice Rink and Swimming Pool
complex will deliver an eight-lane
competition swimming pool, fitness suite
and 56m x 26m ice rink in the heart of the
town centre.
The council says the long-planned
development will assist the cultural renewal
of Romford and will make a huge impact on
the local economy by attracting new inward
investment.
The new rink will also provide a home for
the local ice hockey team, London Raiders,
who relocated to Lea Valley when Romford’s
former ice rink closed in 2013. The team
plans to take up residence in time for the
2018/19 season.
Commenting on the project’s unique
features, Willmott Dixon Project Manager
Simon Cook says: “The temperature
differential between a hot pool and a
freezing ice rink has made this building
particularly challenging to design and build.”
The difference in temperature creates
the potential for surface condensation due
to warm, moist air hitting a very cold slab
above the pool.
FACT FILE
Romford Ice Rink and
Swimming Pool
Main client:
London Borough of
Havering
Architect:
Saunders Boston
Main contractor:
Willmott Dixon
Structural engineer:
AKS Ward
Steelwork contractor:
Billington Structures
Steel tonnage: 1,200t
The project is located
in the heart of Romford
town centre
As most ice rinks are built on the ground
this is not an everyday problem, but the
solution was relatively straightforward. A
thick layer of carefully detailed insulation
was installed below the 200mm thick
composite slab.
This protected the network of ice rink
cooling pipes encased in the super-flat
concrete slab which had to be constructed
to a surface tolerance of +/- 3mm. Below
this, steelwork supporting metal decking
was punctured with 300mm diameter holes
through the webs to increase air circulation.
As well as isolating the ice rink from the
pool, the other big challenge was creating
the large spans for each of these two distinct
facilities.
“Due to the extensive spans we required,
and because of the unique challenges of
constructing an ice rink over a swimming
pool, our preferred approach was to use
a steel frame solution,” explains Saunders
Boston Architects Director Nathan Swift.
“Steel was the obvious choice to
accommodate the 25m-long span
competition pool, an array of water
balancing tanks, a learner pool and the ice
rink’s 42m-long span,” agrees AKS Ward
Engineer Sophie Onoufriou.
“Both vertical and horizontal deflections
of the structure were also very tight and
difficult to achieve due to the large open
spaces and double-height voids. Locating
steel cross bracing at the right places was a
challenge.”