Thorp Precast Ltd

Steel and concrete office building

The new co-operative headquarters is a 15 storey commercial office building. There are 3 structural cores formed with insitu concrete, these are then joined together with structural steel, the steel was supported for the first two floors by architectural white Portland mix precast columns approximately four metres tall. The steel was then fitted out with precast coffer units (Approx. 2000) typical weight about 4t, both steel and concrete were detailed in Tekla and collaboration was made between the structural steel and precast concrete sub-contractors. Other sub-contractors who had been used for design of the precast would use Tekla BIMsight and design would be progressed using this method for various details.

Use of Tekla software to monitor manufacture, delivery and installation

The nature of the precast and method of installation was particularly challenging, Tekla was used effectively to help introduce the relevant safety procedures such as handrailing and forming safe walkways as the building was being constructed. The building was also built in phases of three floors at a time, meaning once 3 floors of steel were erected, the precast coffers needed to be installed through 3 levels of steel. This was a challenge, but with the use of Tekla software we were able to create an installation sequence and determine the exact angles that the coffer would need to be hoisted in to enable the safe passing of steelwork and ability to land the coffer safely in its final place. Without this ability it would have proved difficult to determine the possibility of this. We continued to use Tekla once the detailing was complete to monitor and visualise manufacture, delivery and installation status. This was used between parties on a regular basis and provided up to date information on a constant basis.