Meadowhall Shopping Centre

Summary

Replacing the proposed steel structure in the original plans, a partnership with Laing O’Rourke and Evergrip arrived at a GRP solution which offered significant efficiencies in weight, maintenance free longevity, ease of installation and overall cost, making it the preferred choice for the project.

The weight saving offered by the GRP service raceway was a key element to this project, meaning a significant reduction in imposed load on the roof.   The entire structure was placed on non-penetrative support feet and pads, obviating any need for the all-important roof weather seal to be broken, another critical factor.

The nature of the redevelopment at Yorkshire’s premier shopping destination required minimal disruption to retail trading.  Planned around a tight schedule, installing the 1 km GRP service raceway took just 50 working days, significantly less than for a steel structure to be fitted. All materials were manoeuvred onto the roof via crane, outside of trading hours to ensure there were no risks to the public, nor impact on the centre’s operations. The reduced weight of fibreglass in comparison with steel, allowed crane lifts to be minimised and the custom produced 7.3m long main sectional components were carried into position by the Evergrip installation team. This rapid erection schedule allowed for improved time efficiencies for the whole project to move forward on time.  The client was suitably reassured by the result of these works and seeing the advantages of the material used led them to replace the majority of existing  maintenance access steps and platforms across the entire roof with fibreglass GRP equivalents and in doing so, further minimised the imposed load on the roof.