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Protection screen design to protect the railway during the demolition of an old power signal box adjacent to Euston station.
Demolition Contractor: John F Hunt
Client: Skanska Costain JV
Scope of Work
The brief was to design a scheme that maximised reusability whilst being robust enough to withstand small debris impacts during the demolition phase.
Site Constraints
The proximity to Euston Station meant that the scheme design needed to be quickly and easily installed and the section hatched in green in the drawing below had to remain accessible at all times as it was the main track access and maintenance point in that area of the railway.
Design Concepts
After initial analysis by the engineering team two potential concepts were identified and the client requested design concepts for both.
Concept 1 – Reusable Fabricated System
The first concept was a reusable fabricated system consisting of 3 modules.
Type A – Standard module intended to be a flat-pack structure that could be stored and reused
Type B – Access module to aid installation
Type C – Stiffening module to give additional strength to type B
A thin concrete pad at the base to provide sufficient bearing. The kentledge blocks stacked on it provided stability.
Concept 2 – Stacked Containers
The second concept was a stacked container solution.
Shipping containers would be stacked up to create a robust screen. The screen would gain stability from filling the containers with kentlege, as required.
The containers were tied together using standard components. These component are normally used to restrain containers when loaded aboard ships.
The foundation was relatively thin and had a UB encased within it. Welded to the top of this were the top corner brackets of a container.
Favoured Solution
The client favoured the second concept which had advantage in lead time and the prohibitive initial cost of fabrication of the first design. This concept met the initial design requirements and was sustainable as the containers would be reusable.
As this methodology was not common for demolition the contractor created an off-site mock up to demonstrate the configuration.
Successful Installation
This project was successfully installed by the demolition contractor on behalf of Skanska Costain JV who put the project forward as a candidate for Demolition Innovation of the Year.