Residential
NSC 27
Annual Review
With different room sizes and facilities
on most floors the retirement village also
requires numerous services, such as heating
and power, which have had to be integrated
within the structural floor zone.
BAM Design says its expertise in 3D
co-ordinated design, and working with
steelwork contractor Adstone Construction
as well as the structural engineer and M&E
subcontractor in a collaborative manner,
was fundamental to the integration of over
400 services holes through the steel frame.
“We have fabricated and installed a series
of universal beams, each with individual
holes formed within them to accommodate
the services,” says Adstone Construction
Contracts Director Gary Howson. “It was
important to have the services within the
beam’s depth as this kept the building
height down.”
The beams spanning the corridors have
to accommodate the most services. In order
to create enough space, the design team had
to change the support level for the metal
decking in some locations.
With a total steel tonnage of just over
1,000t, the project has required an unusually
large number of individual steel members.
With little repetition, as very few
columns reach the full height of the
building, the frame also has to incorporate
step changes to the layout. Adstone
estimates that the project has required 50%
more steel members than would ordinarily
be needed for a scheme of this size.
During the steel erection programme
Adstone delivered 47 loads of steel,
with some loads consisting of up to 270
individual members.
“There are a lot of small pieces due to
the complex nature of the structure and
the requirements of the frame with every
connection being bolted. We’ve calculated
there are approximately 53,000 bolts on this
complex job,” adds Mr Howson.
Because most of the steel frame consists
of small light pieces, Adstone was able to
use a 40t-capacity mobile crane for the steel
erection. The only exception being some
large 10t beams spanning the pool, which
required a large crane to be brought to site.
The large piece-count of steel also made
the erection process quite complicated.
“We couldn’t just erect the building
sequentially from one end to the other,
as the column lines change so frequently
and many parts of the building are reliant
on adjacent areas for their stability,” says
BAM Construction Senior Site Manager
Alan Whyte. “Consequently, the erection
sequence had to jump around a bit, which
made it more challenging when organising
where the follow-on trades could begin
their work.”
Completion of the retirement village is
scheduled for September 2018.
Room sizes and uses
change for each floor
The project
incorporates an 8m
slope from one end of
the site to the other
The complex
steel frame