How PCE HybriDfMA works: a combination of precast and insitu concrete, with structural steelwork
Offsite Magazine provides update on PCE's Vulcan Mill project in Manchester
A recent issue of Offsite Magazine, available to read online, has showcased on page 66 both the methodology and the advantages of PCE Ltd's HybriDfMA approach with a report concerning a newbuild seven storey apartment block with basement.
PCE was appointed by Russells Construction Ltd to provide the design, manufacture and construction of an offsite engineered Hybrid Structure for The Loom, a residential development forming part of the £17m final phase of the Vulcan Mill redevelopment, located on Malta Street in Manchester. The building was designed by MPSL Planning and Design Ltd for client Artisan Investment Group Ltd. PCE installed and supplied precast concrete columns, shear walls and steel Deltabeams
How HybriDfMA works
According to the report in Offsite Magazine, PCE's DfMA solution is a combination of precast and insitu concrete together with structural steelwork. The article covers many elements of the project, including the 4m deep basement box, the internal structure, featuring precast column blade columns which support shallow composite Deltabeams. The arrangement of those blade columns has created a flexible layout which has enabled the creation of fourty two basement level car parking spaces.
"The complete structure includes in excess of 1800 pre-engineered structural components, manufactured off site and delivered on a just-in-time basis."
Negating the use for tower cranes
Key to the project delivery, says the report, was PCE's approach of removing the need for tower cranes "...which would have created a number of oversailing issues with neighbouring properties." The craneage and logistics strategy saw "...PCE utilising a Crawler Crane to one long elevation with offloading of delivery vehicles being from the opposite long elevation. The crane has had to be positioned between the existing Mill building and the new structure and will be derigged on the road outside site once complete."
