PTA directly appointed by A2 Dominion
PTA are delighted to be chosen by RSL A2 Dominion as Consulting Engineers for the multi-million development of one of the most prestigious sites on the North Bank of the River Thames adjacent to Hammersmith Bridge. Approximately 200 high quality residential apartments will be designed on this historic site, together with commercial and community accommodation and Television studios.
The site is home to the famous Riverside Studio which broadcast the first colour television programme in the world along also with the well known series Doctor Who. Amongst other consultants are Project Managers Cyril Silver Partners and Architects Scott Browning.
Windsor Races
PTA's summer outing took place this year on Monday 17th August with a trip to Windsor races.
A good time was be had by all.
It was a nice summers evening and a few staff members were successful with their wagers. PTA
PTA's Barabara Ralph finished 3rd in her age category in the London Marathon on Sunday 26th April.
Barbara's time was 3hrs 18 mins 53 secs which placed her 240th overall in the womens race and an impressive 3rd in her age category (women 55 to 59).
Well done Barbara.
Not to be outdone, husband John did the Pednor 5 mile race walk on 4th May which incorporated the Buckinghamshire Race Walk Championship, he won the gold medal. PTA Win a Bronze AwardPTA are proud to announce receiving the Bronze design award under the considerable constructors Design and Build Scheme for our scheme at Norden Road, maidenhead. The client Terrace Hill Group and contractor Fitzpatrick are delighted to be associated with this successful design which took a sympathetic account of the nearby properties and highway access difficulties from the busy public roads. Such awards demonstrate a synergy with neighbourhood activities and are highly regarded by local planners and activist groups.
PTA and Trak Join ForcesPTA and Trak Construction formed a consortium bid and are pleased to be successful in winning the design and build competition for the construction of the largest Metropolitan Police Custody Centre, to be located in the east of London, adjacent to the North Circular Road and the River Lee.
Vehicular access links to and from the main North Circular and also other arterial roads make the site an ideal location for the police facility. The locality required extensive research and investigation into the inevitable ground conditions and contamination and a detailed remediation exercise is currently commencing, utilising deep well point chemical injection and a specialist system of concrete plugged vibro stone columns will be utilised to support the police structure.
The riverside environment includes the famous Hand Creek which has been used to supply the site from Thames barges during the early 19th century and extensive riverside works will be carried out to enhance the local environment. PTA are pleased to provide both civil, structural and also architectural design services for the scheme, which also includes speculative warehouse developments on the adjacent site areas. New Venture Project Kendal Avenue, Acton
PTA, working alongside Marbank Construction Limited, were appointed by Canmoor Projects Limited to provide structural and civil engineering services on this prestigious commercial development.
Yet again, PTA’s considerable expertise was used on both the infrastructure and principle buildings to facilitate a commercial design to successful premises.
PTA Emergency Response Service
PTA’s Emergency Response Service were called into action again on Sunday morning following a dramatic fire at an automotive factory in Leighton Buzzard. The fire thought to have started at a fork-lift battery charging station completely destroyed one factory unit and the immediate concerns of Hertfordshire’s Fire Department was to get PTA’s experts to give access clearance and an assessment of adjacent buildings.
Large particle defamations (up to 600mm!) were the main structural problem that PTA detailed temporary stability solutions for and organised the necessary immediate work.
PTA’s Emergency Response Service has been called upon on a number of occasions including the immediate aftermath of the Buncefield Depot explosion in Hemel Hempstead as well as a night-time call-out to the New River collapse flooding in Hornsey, North London.
PTA Summer Party
PTA's summer party took place on Friday 1st August with a river boat cruise along the Thames. A good time was had by all.
Whilst aboard a competition took place for the person who took the best photograph of Seacon Tower, Express Wharf (PTA Job No. 7233).
The winner was Gavin King with this photograph. Prestigious Residential Development
PTA are pleased to be appointed by St James Group Plc as Consulting Civil and Structural Engineers for the design of this prestigious residential development on the North bank of the River Thames adjacent to Chelsea Bridge. The project comprises 4 blocks of up to 13 storeys in height with underground basement carparking below, providing a mix of Housing Association affordable residential units and high-specification private residential apartments, together with commercial space and a Health Centre amenity area and also a Local Authority Street-Sweepers Depot.
The project will be designed utilising reinforced concrete framework with flat-plate slabs and incorporating high levels of sustainability and low-carbon footprint. The project is also designed to bridge over the route of future crossrail subterranean tunnels, and the design, therefore, provides for deep bored piling and a detailed ground movement analysis has been required to ensure the future tunnelling procedures are catered for.
The project is due to commence on site in January 2008 and will be completed by December 2010. -----------------another prestigious job that PTA are the appointed Consulting Engineers for-------Rydon Construction is gearing up to start work in September on a £129m regeneration deal in north London.
In tandem with Hyde Housing and following a master plan worked up by architect PTE, with civil and structural engineering by Powell Tolner & Associates, the job centres on transforming the run-down Packington housing estate in Islington.
The programme is to build 538 affordable homes, plus 301 flats for private sale.
Also planned for the 58,197m2 site is a community centre, shops and an adventure playground.
The focus of the revamped site will be the construction of two new interconnected squares to replace the present unsatisfactory communal gardens, a network of restored squares, including the historic Union Square, and a park running the full length of the site, which is adjacent to the Regent’s Canal.
The project will be divided into six phases over a period of almost nine years. The thinking behind this is to minimise disruption during construction and to allow residents to move into their new homes as soon as they are built.
The first phase of the scheme will focus on the canal side area.
The project will also feature environmental friendly measures such as combined heat and power plant and the use of biomass to achieve the Greater London Authority’s requirement for 10% renewable energy.
The decision to revamp Packington was taken after a structural survey of the 1970’s built estate revealed that it failed to meet current building regulations.
19 Storey Hotel in City of London
PTA are pleased to be successful in their appointment as Civil & Structural Engineers on behalf of Global Grange Limited for a new 19 storey hotel in the heart of the City of London at Prescot Street.
This prestigious development involves a deep basement of 3 storeys, above which are constructed twin asymmetrical towers, one of 16 storeys and one of 12, with concrete-framed construction and transfer floors, for which it is planned to use the state-of-the-art form of slab construction using biaxial in situ hollow core.
This historic site has complexities within the grounds involving a thorough six-month archaeological investigation where PTA will be closely involved in highway-retaining structures, and also during World War 2 this site was recorded to be in the centre of the most heavily bombed part of the city and PTA are involved with bomb-clearance specialists, as the expectations are to find some unexploded devices.
The substantial basements will also create ground movements during excavation and into the long term, all of which will be analysed by finite elements to establish the effects on the surrounding tunnels, tube line and historic old brittle surfaces.
Yet another exciting project for PTA’s engineers to get their teeth into!
PTA receive Concrete Society AwardPTA received a commendation in the 2006 Concrete Society Awards, Building Category for Playgolf at Northwick Park, Harrow
The entire 4000m2 building is constructed of cast-in-situ concrete, almost entirely using the concrete as the finish to floors, soffits and built-in furnishings. By using a combination of standard in-situ concrete in a variety of finishes and higher-quality precast elements, an excellent overall effect has been achieved. Services have been contained in the concrete, helping to create a calm, unified building by keeping visual clutter to a minimum.
The reaction of the public using this building has been uniformly enthusiastic.
The Project is a joint development between the London Borough of Brent and private developer Playgolf Limited to develop a unique ‘pay and play’ commercial golf centre in an urban setting.
The dramatic concrete structure eliminates any of the preconceptions of formality and tradition associated with the sport. This was a key determinant in choosing concrete for the project.
The building is exceptional in that it uses concrete in such a wide variety of ways within a single project, combined to afford economy of construction and quality of environment.
See "Projects Portfolio" for more details.
Heathrow South Cargo Centre
PTA are pleased to announce their success in being appointed as Consulting Civil and Structural Engineers by Expeditors International (UK) Ltd for the design of Expeditors’ main headquarters and freight transfer warehouses at Ascot Road, Feltham, which is immediately south of Heathrow Airport.
This is a £multi-million development comprising 300,000 sq ft of hi-tech cargo warehousing along with 80,000 sq ft of top-grade offices, together with multi-storey car parking and cargo transfer facilities. The site is a 17 acre plot previously owned by British Airports Authority and used as part of the Terminal 5 construction team logistics.
PTA’s success in securing this appointment was based upon their demonstration of a high degree of value-engineering approaches to design, along with their extensive track record in airport cargo facility designs, such as Stanstead Airport and Luton Airport.
The scheme commences on site in January 2007. The scheme Architect is Lewis & Hickey, who promoted the involvement of PTA as engineers. The scheme Quantity Surveyor is Atkins Faithful & Gould, who also have extensive experience in the same area, along the M & E Consultant, Cudd Bentley.
Expeditors are a world-renowned company specialising in heavy manufactured goods distribution throughout the world and are primarily an American-owned operation. Items of cargo transfer include the smallest of microchip components up to massive items, such as the jet engines of a 777 Boeing aircraft.
Photograph (c) FreeFoto.com
Folkestone Central Area Redevelopment
PTA along with their client, Bride Hall Developments, Warner & Asda have assisted in getting this project onto site - the largest and most exciting regeneration that Folkestone has seen in many years.
PTA are the civil and structural engineer on this project development and are proud to be associated with this prestigious project for their client.
See "project portfolio" for more info. Thinnest Slabs Possible by Post-tensioningPTA continue to be regularly appointed by specialist post-tensioning contractor, Strongforce, to carry out detailed designs for their flat slab solutions to residential, office and commercial structures throughout the UK and Ireland.
PTA, historically, have been designing post-tensioned concrete for some 15 years and were originally involved in the authorship of the post-tensioned design code TR17. Current computer software includes the use of “FLOOR” by finite elements and RAPT. Current commissions include
· the mixed use development at Maynooth in Ireland which amounts to some £300m worth of construction project,
· the Sentinel office building of 13 storeys in Liverpool,
· the 9 residential 10 storey buildings at Rosebank, Edinburgh for Barratt Homes
· and the PFI scheme for 2 LA schools in Swindon, Wiltshire.
All schemes involved flat slab construction with slab thickness of between 200mm and a maximum of 250mm. All utilised bonded PT tendons with reinforcement bar as minimal requirements of between 8kg/m2 and 12 kg/m2.
This demonstrates PTA’s continued commitment to value engineering solutions.
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