Battersea Power Station

Permasteelisa Wins Contract for Battersea Project

The £62 million contract to complete façade work for the Battersea Phase 3A project has been awarded to Permasteelisa, an Italian leading company in engineering, project management, manufacturing and installation of architectural envelopes and interior systems. The work involves the design, supply and installation of more than 27,000 sqm of

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Battersea Power Station chimneys dismantled thanks to bespoke solution provided by Delta International

After three years and more than 250,000 man hours, the four chimneys at one of London’s most famous landmarks – Battersea Power Station – were successfully dismantled and removed using a self-climbing platform technique designed by Oldham-based working at height specialists, Delta International. Established in 1977 as a steeplejack company, Delta

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Latest Issue
Issue 325 : Feb 2025

Battersea Power Station

Permasteelisa Wins Contract for Battersea Project

The £62 million contract to complete façade work for the Battersea Phase 3A project has been awarded to Permasteelisa, an Italian leading company in engineering, project management, manufacturing and installation of architectural envelopes and interior systems. The work involves the design, supply and installation of more than 27,000 sqm of complex façade and it is part of the bigger transformation of Battersea Power Station. “We are proud to continue our long collaboration with Frank Gehry, demonstrating once again our ability to turn the ideas of the most visionary architects into reality by applying innovative technologies that also allow us to uphold the highest standards in environmental sustainability,” said CEO of the Permasteelisa Group, Riccardo Mollo. The Battersea Phase 3A project aims to achieve the BREEAM ‘Excellent’ certification, so the visible panels are equipped with low-E coated, extra-clear glass with high thermal and solar performance to maximise the light coming in, while preserving energy savings. The design has required the engineering and production of 2,900 units, with aluminium profile equipped with double-glazed or opaque infill, all different from each other and openable both with a folding or sliding panel, while the undulating shape of the façade required about 3,000 aluminium closed infill ‘boxes’, characterised by a unique and non-repetitive, customised shape. Taking around 18 months to complete, the design and production of the façade involves around 70 professionals from the technical office in Italy, for a total of about 600 drawings and numerous 3D studies. The installation of the first panel is planned for the second quarter of 2019, and the installation is expected to take one and a half years. Permasteelisa Group is a worldwide leading Contractor in the engineering, project management, manufacturing and installation of architectural envelopes and interior systems. Present in four continents, with a network of around 50 companies in 30 countries and 10 production plants, the Group generates a total turnover of around 1.5 billion euros a year.  

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Battersea Power Station chimneys dismantled thanks to bespoke solution provided by Delta International

After three years and more than 250,000 man hours, the four chimneys at one of London’s most famous landmarks – Battersea Power Station – were successfully dismantled and removed using a self-climbing platform technique designed by Oldham-based working at height specialists, Delta International. Established in 1977 as a steeplejack company, Delta has evolved through the years and is now well known for its expertise in providing tailored solutions for projects that require working at significant height and on complex schemes.      Delta International was appointed by Battersea Power Station Development Company to carefully remove the four concrete chimney pots, which had suffered serious corrosion and decay since they were decommissioned in the early 1980s.  The original chimneys have been replaced as part of the multi-million pound redevelopment of the site. Delta’s Technical Director, Nigel Matthews, played an instrumental part in designing the bespoke self-climbing platform allowing engineers to dismantle and remove each of the four concrete chimneys with no lost timeaccidents or delays. Delta International’s vast experience and knowledge was invaluable in putting forward engineering design solutions for a site that was not without significant challenges. Built in the 1930s and 1950s, the chimneys rise 51 metres from the ground and were in a significant state of disrepair, all of which had to be taken account of when proposing a viable solution.  The main issues were not just access and height but also the efficient and swift removal of the severely corroded chimney stacks once dismantled.  Delta also had to allow for the fact that there were people working directly underneath the Delta team throughout the project. The tailored solution was to erect the self-climbing platform which slowly rose up to the top of the chimney while simultaneously installing a safety ladder providing a primary access route to the platform.    Once it reached the summit of the chimney, a series of temporary beams were fixed to the top of the stack allowing the platform to reach the summit. At the top Delta’s engineers installed a scaffold across the chimney opening allowing for a platform to be suspended on the inside.  This allowed for essential stabilisation work to be carried out on the internal tiles of the chimney (a reinforced wrap that would prevent any debris from falling during the deconstruction process). Nigel explained: “As skilled and experienced engineers working at height on complex projects presents little difficulty for us but Battersea Power Station had on-site challenges that no-one could have predicted. “One such challenge was discovering that each chimney was 40% thicker than original reports had stated.  We had to come up with a solution quickly and one that would not cause any delays or increase costs on the project.” The chimneys were removed using specialist equipment that could penetrate the concrete and dismantle it steadily.  All debris was carefully removed using rubber chutes suspended below the self-climbing platform. In addition, Delta’s painstaking removal of the chimney had to be undertaken with other teams working beneath them for the entire duration of the de-construction.  Delta’s Operations Director, Paul Bentley, said: “Health and safety is always paramount, particularly when working at such heights but knowing that we had people working below us for whole duration of the project meant extra vigilance.  And we achieved it.  Over the three years it took to complete using 250,000 man hours, we had no lost time accidents – a major success for such a complex project.” Delta International has more than 40 years of experience of working at height on complex projects.  Nigel concluded: “This significant expertise proved invaluable on the Battersea Power Station project and we are proud to have been part of the restoration work for such an important London landmark. “While the type of at height project has changed over the years, skills, expertise and experience remain a vital component.  Currently we are using a similar bespoke climbing system to dismantle a chimney at Sellafield nuclear plant.  We have recently removed and replaced an entire roof of a major industrial unit while work continued uninterrupted beneath us for the duration of the project.” Key facts: ·       Health and safety stretched not just to workers on the deconstruction project but also a family of falcons nesting in Battersea Power Station structure. ·       As part of the dismantling process, Delta extricated a circular section of one of the chimneys which will be placed on display in the new development. ·       500 small segments of the old chimneys were extracted, preserved and given to residents living in the local area ·       A total of 600 tonnes of concrete and 72 tonnes of lining tiles per chimney were removed swiftly and silently from the site Delta International is experienced and expert in the inspection, maintenance and demolition of tall industrial structures, including chimneys, cooling towers, flare stacks, silos and pipelines. Delta work predominantly in the European power and refining markets and have some of the largest companies in these sectors as clients.

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Featuring Loughton Contracts: Interview with Tony Mills, Director of Operations

Aesthetics is everything and good interior design has the ability to transform a building, mark its entry into the modern-day, and is key to creating something which is more than purely functional. Acknowledging the imperative of flooring as a key component of an aesthetic structure, and doing so in a manner that affords certainty in both quality and safety, Loughton Contracts has established a mode of practice whereby nothing is left to chance. Over the past thirty years, the company has grown exponentially, rapidly becoming the UK’s leading flooring contractor, successfully entering the commercial market and regularly working on high profile projects across the UK. Despite phenomenal expansion, the ambition of Loughton Contracts remains the same: to be the best flooring installer out there, and the company’s health and safety ethic – amongst its quality and professionalism – differentiates it from many like competitors. Refusing to be ordinary, the company is determined to do things differently, as Tony Mills, Director of Operations at Loughton Contracts asserts: “Within the construction industry, companies tend be reactive, rather than proactive. More often than not, health and safety becomes a box-ticking exercise and that’s not what we’re about. We want to be proactive. We want to find what’s best for our operatives and work hard to protect our staff.” Keen to prevent not just discrete injuries and loss time accidents but long-term health complaints too, the company takes a holistic view of health and safety well beyond either legal compliance or accreditation. In many ways, Loughton Contracts can be defined by being two steps ahead of the pack. The company insists on a 5 Point PPE policy, as well as enforcing any other kit required for each, individual job. Supplying and installing many different materials and in various dimensions, Loughton Contracts is adaptive and able to make subtle changes to working procedure across projects – utilising face-fitting masks for cutting timber and knee-pads for the hard-flooring team being just two examples. Having worked on a number projects, including prestigious universities and major blue chip organisations, during the course of 2015 Loughton Contracts installed flooring on a phenomenal scale at the new Tate Modern extension. It saw the company win Health and Safety Contractor of the Month multiple times over a twelve month period, pitching above around 30 other sub-contractors on site. The accolade came as a result of the combined efforts of management and operatives, each exuding responsibility for the team and business as a whole. The company’s specialist workforce is, in part, indebted to Loughton Contracts’ prolonged investment in training and development; the company recognises the importance of regular and progressive development. It’s with the introduction of a training matrix, listing both administrative and operations staff, that the contractor is able to instantly identify when employees are due for renewal as well as capitalise on upcoming opportunities with external providers. “I’ve done the budgets for this year and, with a quick scan of the matrix, know that 7 people need a CSCS card, four need to renew their SSSTS training, two need to do the SMTS course and, on top of that, we’re looking at promoting asbestos awareness and providing further training where we can.” With such attention paid to staff training and a united code of practice, it comes as no surprise that the company incurred zero accidents last year despite laying over a million square metres of flooring across 700 different projects. Not complacent however, with the log of one accident this January, a minor cut, Loughton Contracts has already launched an investigation as to why it happened in order to prevent it from happening again. As a result of its preliminary findings, the company has already enacted various changes to working practice: for instance, introducing retractable knives for the removal of packaging. Indeed, Loughton Contracts’ keen health and safety practice is set to tighten and advance further with this year seeing the introduction of an intranet system capable of hosting risk assessments, accident reports, toolbox talks and method statements and all other documentation relevant to the job. Tony Mills provides further detail: “Not only does this work alongside our database and is helping us to create a more paperless environment, the intranet allows us greater efficiency with respect to getting the message out there. When out on site, our operatives can go straight to the most up to date forms and processes and go into a job with all the information they need to carry out work to the standard we expect. By the end of this year, the extranet system will be online and will allow greater interaction with the documentation in cases where things need to be amended, adapted or sent out.” Embedded within the company’s core and informing its future development, health and safety is something on which Loughton Contracts is simply unwilling to compromise. As their flooring work on one of the largest construction project in Europe, Battersea Power Station, gets underway, the company’s dedicated ethic and unique industry profile remains unshakeable and will no doubt continue to see Loughton Contracts foster the respect of clients and competitors alike.

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