- PROJECT : Retractable tracked tent building
- SECTOR : Construction
- LOCATION : London
On a recent construction due to be built at the time near Hyde Park a pre-cast company was manufacturing 9 tonne building segments, each of which required a metal construction to house the glazing and cladding panels.
The supplier of the fabrications was based in Austria but it simply wasn’t feasible to send dozens of 9 tonne blocks across Europe. As they came off the production line at the pre-cast manufacturer based in a quarry in South Yorkshire they needed undercover facilities to carry out the welding operations in all weathers.
reasonably level site was chosen but it wasn’t sufficiently level to make a retractable building an easy operation so we had to devise a way to level the site and provide finger tip control, gale force wind resistance and a comfortable working environment to enable the engineers to do their work.
First we laid two 24 m long tracks, 9m apart and dead level across a site which varied 360mm from a high to various depths across the planned site. We constructed the runway from channel which was 380mm wide and the toes could be used as fixing brackets if turned sideways to the main channel which was fixed toes down and then simply bolted to the toes of the main beam.
Surplus material was then angle ground off leaving a perfect level surface on to which we mounted the building tracks. We also provided fixings for 8 storm lashings, each capable of taking 10 tonnes so the building could be fully secured in stormy conditions and still operationally functional having goods doors at both ends.
The internal height was approx. 5m on the tracks. There were several welding bays to take the 9 tonne blocks and the building could concertina up or retract to either end to give full overhead crawler crane access for fast change round of work.
It was a total success and could be easily moved by two people on either side of the runway using only their index finger to operate the pantographic system which enabled the facility.