Around the Press: April 2012

Construction News
8 March 2012
Mixed scheme sets logistical puzzles
With typical spans of 15m through the office space, the Severfield-Rowen team that took the steel subcontract has installed 1,440 tonnes of steelwork since it started its work at the beginning of August, using more than 2,000 lifts from the three luffing cranes that have been inched onto the site.

Construction News
15 March 2012
Refurb challenge for Victorian icon
Over the years the continual use of the Royal Albert Bridge has seen some parts of the structure require significant strengthening work. In all, some 2,305 areas have required predesigned steelwork repairs. These include the cross girder end plate connections, which were showing signs of cracking, and diagonal struts, which were beginning to elongate and slacken.

RIBA Journal
March 2012
Steely resolve
[Wills Imperial Tobacco HQ, Bristol] “With its exposed CorTen structure, it was one of the earliest examples of a modern movement office building in the UK,” says AFM director David Caird. “Because the design set the weathering frame structure away from the building’s glazed skin, it helped us in the refurbishment. Not only that, but the integrity of the primary structure meant the firm could cut out two structural bays for an atrium.”

Building Magazine
2 March 2012
Just what the doctor ordered
[The Royal London Hospital] With 148,500m² of new build accommodation and 15,600m² of refurbished space it is now the largest hospital in London. The frame comprises 1, 750 of structural steelwork.

New Civil Engineer
23 February 2012
Low loader
[Troja Bridge, Prague] At its apex, the welded steel box section arch is 6.2m wide and a wafer thin 800mm deep. At approximately quarter span the arch dramatically splits giving it four legs, each measuring 4.5m deep by 1.1m wide