The Curve
Morgan Sindall
2 weeks
£60k
William Street, Slough
Location & Overview
The Curve was located on William Street in Slough town centre, bounded to the north by the Church of Our Lady Immaculate, St Ethelbert’s Church, Presbytery and Church hall. To the northwest was the junction of Wellington St and William St, to the east, the Queensmere Shopping Centre and to the south were retail properties on the High Street and Mackenzie Square. The original buildings had been demolished, leaving the ground floor slab in place.
Work, Challenges & Solutions
Intrusive ground investigation was carried out, indicating concealed ducts beneath the concrete slab; this highlighted the need for a Refurbishment and Demolition survey to be carried out.
Trial pits were dug to enable evaluation of the contents of the ducts, the survey revealing that pipe work was lagged with asbestos insulation.
The slab was cut into manageable sections by diamond saws, and lifting eyes were fitted, allowing safe removal with no manual handling issues.
We removed the insulation from 100 linear metres of the pipe work, but due to its location, further investigations were necessary.
Works were carried out under fully controlled conditions within enclosures which were robust enough to withstand all weather conditions. Pre-fabricated scaffolding was used to build a secure structure along the length of the duct.
Once all isolations had been carried out, the pipes were wrapped in polythene and cut into manageable lengths within the constraints of the sealed enclosure. This allowed the pipe work to be removed with the majority of the asbestos insulation intact, with the minimum of disturbance consequently the potential for fibre generation was much reduced.
Achievements
The works took 14 days to complete, with all asbestos-lagged pipe work, identified and removed.
No disruption was caused, and the job was completed on time and within budget.