CampbellReith was appointed to assist the Mechanical, Electrical and Public Health Engineers to provide Structural and Civil Engineering services related to the Infrastructure upgrade of the existing services on the large hospital estate.

As part of these works there was a wholesale upgrade of the existing Energy Centre and Fuel tank space, which was adapted to house new equipment required to more efficiently support the hospital facilities. Our works involved evaluation of the existing building structures, and design of new structural support should the proposed plant have exceeded the capacity of the existing structure.

CampbellReith advised on new mezzanine steel frame to expand the capacity of the existing plant space. Our solution was to support the mezzanine frame on the existing ground floor slab and foundations where this was within the existing capacity. However, where this was not been possible, new pad footings had been incorporated.

Due to the extensive loading of the proposed 4m high water tanks to be housed in the existing building we had proposed a piled raft for support inn these areas. We had looked at the access within the confines of the existing building and we advised on using mini-piles for these works.

Adaptation of the existing fuel tank space required a further mezzanine frame to provide a level threshold with the external ground level as the existing floor is a storey height below the ground. We were able to provide efficiencies in the design by spreading the new floor load above the reduced level slab, avoiding any breaking out of the existing substructure as part of the works.

There were also several elements of equipment being placed on the existing roof across the hospital estate. Typically the roof capacity was insufficient for the proposed loading, therefore we designed new steel support frames to span over the existing roof and transfer this load directly into the existing columns and foundations. We were able to obtain extensive record drawing information to enable the load assessment to be carried out.

CampbellReith was also involved in the Civil’s work at the hospital estate, looking at the adaptation of the existing access roads onto the site. All of the works had taken place in a live hospital environment and therefore the phasing of the construction and impact on hospital adjacencies were considered with the Trust through the design process.