www.newsteelconstruction.com Steel expands Reading tower Vol 24 No 3 March 2016 No 3 March 24 Vol In at the deep end New schools for Home Counties Steel transforms Bracknell Blast resisting Grangemouth In this issue Cover Image Ashton [Old] Baths, Manchester Main client: Tameside Council Architect: PlaceFirst Architects Main contractor: HH Smith & Sons Structural engineer: Renaissance Steelwork contractor: B D Structures Steel tonnage: 65t March 2016 Vol 24 No 3 Editor’s comment Some construction clients are reported to be postponing projects over worries 5 about rising tender prices. Editor Nick Barrett warns that today’s prices might look cheap before long; but welcomes news that steel still provides the most cost-effective framing solution. News Plans have been put forward for a 73-storey steel-framed tower that would be the City of 6 London’s tallest structure. Retail The centre of Bracknell is getting a thorough makeover with the construction of a £250M retail 10 scheme. Commercial As part of a major renovation of a 1970s concrete office block in Reading, four new steel 12 floors have been added. Commercial A blast resistant office block is being constructed at the petrochemical works in 16 Grangemouth. 18 Education Steel is the framing solution for a seven school building programme in the Home Counties. Commercial A steel-framed office pod has been erected inside a Victorian swimming baths. 24 26 Technical SCI’s David Brown presents part 2 of lateral torsional buckling in the Eurocodes. 30 Codes and Standards 31 Advisory Desk AD 396 – Tying resistance of flexible end plates in one-sided connections. 50 Years Ago Our look back through the pages of Building with Steel features a special steel dock for 31 an aircraft tail. 32 BCSA Members Register of Qualified Steelwork Contractors for Bridgeworks These and other steelwork articles 34 can be downloaded from the New Steel Construction Website at www.newsteelconstruction.com NSC March 16 3 Comment Steel stays the competitive choice Tender prices fell to unsustainable levels during the post credit crisis and recession years, placing the entire supply chain under pressure. Demand has recovered from those lows, though it hasn’t reached the previous peak for structural steelwork, and there is still spare capacity in our sector. There have recently been reports about some developers in London putting projects on the backburner because of rising tender prices and several are said to be revisiting their costings. This might easily backfire as the next move in tender prices could easily be upwards. Against a background of rising material costs, wage Nick Barrett - Editor inflation and strong demand in other parts of the market, today’s tender prices could look cheap in a year or so, especially if a rebound in oil prices forces the cost of materials up. One thing the construction supply chain would agree on is that margins have been too tight in recent years so if developers are looking for price cuts the message is don’t look for it in our margins. For developers who decide to push on against whatever short-term headwinds there might be, there is at least some good news from the latest cost research by Gardiner & Theobald. The latest Steel Insight series article that appeared in Building magazine on 26 February shows that steel is maintaining the competitive edge that has brought it dominance in the key markets like multi-storey offices and single storey industrial buildings for so many years. As can be seen from the project profiles in this – or any – month’s issue of NSC, steel is consistently the cost-effective choice for the widest range of types of building, delivering benefits to sustainability, to construction programmes and to flexibility; sometimes it is steel that makes buildings possible at all. Construction prices might have been on a rising trend recently, but steel retains its competitive cost edge and there is nothing on the horizon likely to change that. EDITOR NEW STEEL CONSTRUCTION IS PRODUCED BY EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Nick Barrett Tel: 01323 422483 BARRETT BYRD ASSOCIATES ON BEHALF OF THE Ms S McCann-Bartlett (Chair); [email protected] BRITISH CONSTRUCTIONAL STEELWORK ASSOCIATION Mr N Barrett; Mr D G Brown, SCI; DEPUTY EDITOR AND TATA STEEL, IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE STEEL Mr C Dolling, BCSA; Mr R Gordon; Martin Cooper Tel: 01892 538191 CONSTRUCTION INSTITUTE. Mr A Palmer, Buro Happold Engineering; [email protected] Ms B Romans, Bourne Construction Engineering; CONTRIBUTING EDITOR The British Constructional Steelwork Association Ltd Mr G H Taylor, Caunton Engineering; Ty Byrd Tel: 01892 553143 4 Whitehall Court, Westminster, London SW1A 2ES Mr M Thompson, Mott MacDonald; [email protected] Telephone 020 7839 8566 Mr O Tyler, Wilkinson Eyre Architects PRODUCTION EDITOR Website www.steelconstruction.org Andrew Pilcher Tel: 01892 553147 Email [email protected] The role of the Editorial Advisory Board is to advise [email protected] on the overall style and content of the magazine. PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Tata Steel Alastair Lloyd Tel: 01892 553145 PO Box 1, Brigg Road, Scunthorpe, New Steel Construction welcomes contributions on [email protected] North Lincolnshire DN16 1BP any suitable topics relating to steel construction. NEWS REPORTER Telephone 01724 404040 Publication is at the discretion of the Editor. Views Mike Walter Website www.tatasteelconstruction.com expressed in this publication are not necessarily COMMERCIAL MANAGER Email [email protected] those of the BCSA, SCI, Tata Steel or the Contract Fawad Minhas Tel: 01892 553149 Publisher. Although care has been taken to ensure [email protected] The Steel Construction Institute that all information contained herein is accurate with Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7QN relation to either matters of fact or accepted practice Telephone 01344 636525 Fax 01344 636570 at the time of publication, the BCSA, SCI, Tata Steel Website www.steel-sci.com and the Editor assume no responsibility for any errors Email [email protected] or misinterpretations of such information or any loss or damage arising from or related to its use. 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ISSN 0968-0098 Telephone 01892 524455 Website www.barrett-byrd.com NSC March 16 5 News Plans submitted for City of London’s tallest tower The City of London’s skyline could be tower peaking at 270m, a design that led to radically altered yet again as plans for a it being dubbed “The Fang”. 309.6m-tall tower have been submitted for The new design is for a more planning approval. conventional office tower block with The new tower will be the same height distinctive visible structural steel cross as The Shard – Europe’s tallest building, bracing. which stands just across the river in It would stand 28m higher than Southwark. the replacement steel-framed tower for the Designs from Eric Parry architects Pinnacle scheme at 22 Bishopsgate that plan the demolition of the headquarters could now only temporarily become the of insurance giant Aviva to make way City’s tallest building when it completes for a 73-storey steel-framed tower at 1 in 2019. Undershaft. Both of these buildings will loom The 90,000m2 building would be able above a number of recent City skyscrapers, to accommodate 10,000 people and boast a including the Leadenhall Building viewing platform higher than that of The (Cheesegrater) and 20 Fenchurch Street Shard, and London’s highest public sky (Walkie Talkie). restaurant. London currently has only 15 towers A conceptual design by Avery Associates over 150m, lagging behind New York that for the previous owner of the 1 Undershaft has 188 and Hong Kong, the high-rise world site proposed an angular sloping sided glass champion with 302. Recladding of St Thomas’ Hospital East Wing completed Contractor ISG has completed the £21M Project architect Hopkins said the recladding of the 1966 built east wing at St project was completed without significant Thomas’ Hospital in central London. disruption to the hospital, which remained The scheme involved the retention and in use throughout the construction process. refurbishment of the existing façade on Bourne Steel fabricated, supplied and the 13-storey tower, which stands across erected much of the project’s steelwork, the Thames from the Houses of Parliament including a prefabricated and modular lift (see NSC May 2014). shaft to accommodate two new patients This façade was made from slate, teak, lifts in the eastern atria. stainless steel and ceramic tiles but had Prior to installing the lift shaft, Bourne suffered from water ingress, excessive solar Steel erected the floor steelwork for the gain and inadequate lift capacity. two atria. This was formed with a series of ISG added a new steel-framed glazed 600mm × 400mm jumbo box sections that cladding system, creating a double-skinned were installed at second floor level above a façade along the building’s western side triple-height basement. and two new steel-framed atria along Supporting the floors are CHS columns, the east, housing new bed lifts and an art and one feature Y-shaped column at the installation. front that also supports the atria glazing. Steel up for Met office supercomputer buildings Steelwork erection has been completed on 90m long and 25m wide, but importantly ancillary spaces. grid pattern. The two main elevations, with the £97M project to build accommodation offering a central 15m-wide column-free The hexagon-shaped Collaboration the front sloping inwards and the back doing for the Met Office’s new weather forecasting span for the computer hall. Space was the most challenging to design the reverse, are built from this steel box.