Bullivants solve tricky problem Tuesday, 1st April 2008
Emergency response: A precast foundation beam is wheeled through the corridors of Morriston hospital in south Wales by engineers from Roger Bullivant Ltd (RBL) to a construction site in an enclosed central garden.
Delivery of beams through the hospital was necessary because the building site is around 100m from an outside wall, and use of wet concrete on site would have proved awkward. “Pumping concrete over the top of the building was not practical, and it would have disrupted the hospital if we had laid pipes through the corridors,” said RBL area manager Dave Johnston.
Sixteen beams and 14 precast pile caps were brought through the hospital in a three hour period and stored on site prior to assembly. The foundations were installed to support a two storey lightweight steel frame that will house a new clerical facility.
Each beam spans a pair of steel cased piles, created in 2m sections and installed to a depth of 8m using a mini piling rig. Piles were filled with premixed concrete, that was bagged and carried through the hospital. Site conditions featured made ground over sands and gravels.
RBL completed its £12,500 project in February on behalf of the Swansea NHS Trust. The work followed a larger contract on site last autumn, when RBL installed 150 CFA piles for an extension to the hospital’s burns department.
