| PB was contracted to project manage and design the fire precautions project at Victoria Tower, which is part of London’s Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament). The project was instigated to update the environment within which priceless historic documents are stored. The scope was initially to rectify the deterioration of the existing vermiculite that had been sprayed on as a fire precaution, but was now starting to crack and fall off the ceilings. After an initial review and feasibility study, our scope was extended to include a complete redesign and replacement of the existing air conditioning system and the rewiring of the entire tower. Associated works included:
• Construction of new fire exit staircases to replace ladders
• New floor coverings
• Installation of a new fire detection system
• Provision of three cold rooms on Floor 12
• Provision of new storage shelving.
Construction of the Palace commenced in 1840, with the first stage completed in 1852. The building is Grade 1 listed, a designation given by English Heritage to buildings that are of exceptional historic interest, so we were not allowed to alter it visually, and any works to the building had to be approved by English Heritage.
Used as a repository, all of the Acts of the House of Lords are stored within Victoria Tower’s twelve floors (Figure 1), the oldest Act being the death warrant of King Charles the Second, which dates back to 1685.
A Seemingly Straightforward Project Presents Some Hurdles
This type of project was relatively straightforward for our team, but our challenge comes now—how do we plan to get all the plant materials and equipment into or out of the building? A standard approach would be to take material to the delivery entrance, unload, take it to the required floor via the goods lift (service elevator), unload and assemble. Unfortunately, this approach was not acceptable for the Victoria Tower. The material delivery point for all plant, equipment, building materials and scaffolding is located three storeys up in the centre of an arch (Figure 2) and is only 2 m (6.5 feet) wide. In addition, the delivery road at ground level is used as a meeting point for visitors to the Palace of Westminster.
Figure 1: External Elevation of Victoria Tower.
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Figure 2: Section through Victoria Tower. |
Figure 3: Cracking int the vermiculite on the ceiling before the renovation (top), and new ceiling , floor covering, shelving, lighting, and air conditioning unit after (bottom) . (What may seem to be clutter to some is "our history" to others.)
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Figure 4: Plant room on the 13th floor. |
Further complicating the matter was that the Acts of the House of Lords are, of course, irreplaceable. They had to be removed before any work could commence ... but they also had to be available to the Lords 24 hours a day, so they could not be taken off site.
The initial challenge was to identify the least used records, something we did with assistance from the House of Lords Record office. These records were then transferred to a local storage facility by a professional, insured removals company managed by PB. Whilst this task was underway, the contractor was mobilising and producing detailed method statements and programmes for conducting the refurbishment. These were then reviewed and agreed to by PB prior to the installation. However, there were more issues to be resolved.
The original concept design recommended the removal of the vermiculite and installation of the new board-type vicuclad systems, but this approach would have meant removing more than four tonnes of waste material through the small hole three storeys up. The design team, which now included the contractor, undertook a value engineering workshop and devised a method of retaining the existing vermiculite. Our solution called for mounting Unistrut® framework with fine wire netting 100 mm (4 inches) under the existing ceiling and then mounting the new ceiling grid below that (Figure 3). This technique eventually saved more than six months on the contract programme.
Addressing In/Out and Up/Down Challenges
Returning to the issue of the delivery of the plant, the concept design undertaken by our engineers made allowance of the initial delivery point—materials were scoped as flat pack with no single item being wider than 2 m (6.5 feet) and no longer than 3 m (10 feet). There were many shapes and sizes to deliver, so during a design development meeting with the complete integrated project team, we came up with the concept of delivering materials in a basket. The contractor constructed a circular metal basket just less than the dimensions of the access hatch and was able to hoist directly from the deliver lorry up to the first floor of the tower, which is located three stories above ground level.
We now believed that we were ready to undertake the installation of the plant, when another problem came to our attention. The plant is delivered at the first floor of the tower but the major plant rooms are located on the 13th and 14th floors (Figure 4). Access to these floors is provided by a small 6-person lift or a staircase, and this lift was also being used to transport the documents up and down. Initially we proposed to use the lift and prepared a detailed usage programme that specified time frames when the lift was available for all palace staff and contractor’s personnel. During the first two weeks of deliveries we identified that this plan was not going to work in practice and that these up and down deliveries were going to impact the progress of the project.
The only identified alternative was to transport all plant manually up the stairs. During an inspection undertaken by our building surveyor with an English Heritage representative, however, it was noted that there appeared to be an old bricked up doorframe in the tower’s northeast turret. English Heritage gave its authority to open this doorway, giving us full access to the turret, which was already open on the 13th floor.
This access gave us an alternative delivery option. A specially designed, wall-mounted lift was installed in the turret, so we now had an independent lift with access to the 13th and 14th floors. This then provided a separate route for delivery and removal, which meant that the entire project could be reprogrammed. This exercise identified a further possible saving of four months for the overall duration of the project.
Fortunately, 21st century ingenuity and capabilities lead to time saving solutions of problems resulting from long traditions and the history of the building. The project was completed eleven months early and within budget.
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