Following the collapse of a large pre-cast balcony panel from the 13th floor of a high rise block of flats, narrowly missing a member of the public, the Council sought reassurance that the Council’s housing stock, comprising 60 high rise and over 500 medium rise buildings, was safe and would remain so for the foreseeable future.
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As the Council’s appointed Structural Engineers, it was first necessary to conduct a detailed investigation and appraisal report on the mechanism of failure leading to collapse, to assess the likelihood of a similar event occurring on the same block or any other similar blocks. This identified the requirement for either strengthening of the panels or their replacement.
To avoid a future reactive chain of events involving erection of full scaffolding to a number of blocks and the associated costs and safety concerns involved, we devised a methodical approach to the repair and renovation of assets, capable of delivering real value, demonstrating a duty of care and provide a means to effect change.
Further development has introduced a fully risk orientated approach to asset management to identify actions necessary to help safeguard the Council’s Corporate Landlord responsibilities and establish project priorities based upon structural condition.
Services
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01Desk study of available information, supplemented by a 5 year rolling programme of safety inspections, detailed inspections, sampling and appraisal of high rise buildings (5 storeys and over), using our own inspections and procurement of specialist roped access surveys (fully endorsed by the ASELB and in collaboration with the BRE)
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02Management of large volumes of data through our own design and development of a bespoke database management tool, which identifies estate wide priorities and is used to inform projects.
