One of the largest concrete frames ever built in the UK is being erected as part of a revamp of Southern General Hospital in south west Glasgow.
PERI has been appointed by Dunne Building & Civil Engineering to construct the 25,000sq m laboratories facility and a 166,000sq m new adult and children’s hospital on the site.
The £65m concrete frame will house the maternity, adult, children’s, neurosurgery and acute units under one roof, with 1,500 adult beds, 300 paediatric beds and approximately 50 maternity beds.
The publicly-funded project will give the city one of the most-advanced hospitals in the UK and will be the largest critical care complex in Scotland.
The superstructure works at the new hospital site include a 13-storey reinforced concrete frame which incorporates slipform cores, supply and erection of 10 tower cranes with formwork and falsework covering an area of 330,000sq m.
The building’s superstructure has been divided into 10 3000sq m sections to help with the movement joints during construction. These sections were also helpful in creating manageable-sized areas.
The main stair and lift cores were the first to be constructed. Nine of the main cores were slipformed. Core G is 14 storeys high and has a helipad on the roof and was poured at an average of 3.1m each day. Placing booms to the tops of slipform rigs were used on the four main tower cores and on average in excess of 3m per day was achieved when sliding through the winter. To improve safety and quality, Dunne supplied precast elements that were introduced such as columns, stairs, landings and edge beams.
The four-year project sees Dunne’s carrying out all concrete works on site, including basements, culverts, tunnels, slabs, columns, walls and cores. Screens are required to protect the public from the construction site along the Blue Route, which is used by members of the public and emergency vehicles.
PERI LPS screens were used to provide protection for around six months during construction, which is now moving on to the cladding phase. Ideal for use on mid or high-rise buildings, PERI LPS screens offer closed facades that are easily assembled on site and can be lifted into position with minimum effort. The ability to lift screens hydraulically is hugely beneficial, allowing Dunne to lift in all weathers and without worrying about crane time. LPS or ‘Light Protection System’ has been developed by PERI engineers to offer quick assembly of the mesh panels with the use of clamp couplers, which are transported to site as telescopic units. Unlike other screening materials, the mesh panels allow daylight to pass through, while cutting down on wind and rain penetration. With the LPS system, the climbing rail is guided by at least two fixing points to the existing structure at all times and offers increased safety.
PERI TRIO is a universal and versatile panel formwork system and was used in the construction of the smaller cores (up to level 6), shear walls and in-situ columns.
On the smaller cores, the wall formwork was supported on CB external platforms. The high load bearing capacity of the brackets, and the cast-ins allowed for a fast turnaround, which meant site were able to get a lift with the brackets and TRIO every five to seven days. The CB scaffold system is formed by connecting the formwork and the climbing scaffold, which is moved as a complete unit by crane to save valuable time.
