Access specialist Brogan Group explains how it has weathered the challenges on the Balfour Beatty-led build of London Docklands’ latest luxury residential tower. Adam Branson reports from the site.
Project: The Madison Client: LBS Properties Main contractor: Balfour Beatty Contract value: £150m (full construction value) Start date: February 2018 Completion date: Early 2020
When it completes next year, LBS Properties’ Madison tower will make for yet another addition to the Isle of Dogs skyline.
The residential tower, which rises to 54 storeys, will include 423 luxury apartments and the sort of amenities people have come to expect from such developments: a gym, spa, cinema room and more.
The building, which has been designed by Ken Shuttleworth’s Make Architects and is being built by Balfour Beatty as lead contractor, is due for completion next year.
Now that it is close to topping out, it is worth considering some of the intricacies that have allowed the Madison to be built on such a tight site in South Quay, where access has been a critical factor.
Following a competitive tender, Balfour Beatty appointed Brogan Group as access contractor in February 2018. After studying plans for the building, the company decided in conjunction with its client that the use of a common tower would be the best strategy.
As the name implies, a common tower provides access to a tall building for all materials and workers.
“It’s an aluminium, heavy-duty leg system that is erected piecemeal to the building,” says Brogan Group design manager Darren Guidera. “It’s fabricated overseas and delivered to our yard, and then delivered to site.
“Part of the build process is that we build floor levels of the tower in a compound area on the site, which are then craned into position, serving each floor as the building progresses.”
Brogan Group started work on site once Balfour Beatty had built the first four floors of the Madison and has followed the main contractor up the building ever since.
“It’s a jumping game, where we keep following them,” says Mr Guidera. “Generally, we build two floors at a time and then crane them into position.”
To do so, Brogan Group makes use of an H-frame to help keep the section steady.
“It levels it out so you can drop it on the pins,” says Brogan Group project supervisor Ady Payne.
“There are six legs, so that’s dropping down onto the existing tower and you’ve got to locate the holes. Surprisingly enough, they do go in relatively easily.”
Next, the two hoists are fitted to the tower. That includes a large-goods hoist with a 5-tonne capacity – something that was essential given the client’s desire to use the hoist to lift completed bathroom pods – as well as a passenger and goods hoist on the opposite side with a 3.5-tonne capacity.
“Again, they go up in the same sort of jumps,” says Mr Guidera.
Given the added health and safety risks that are inherent in working at height, Brogan Group worked hard to ensure that onsite operatives and the public were protected.
“The thing with us is that we sat down and thought about how we could eliminate working with materials at height,” Mr Payne says.
“We have one idea and that becomes a better idea. As you develop ideas, you can make things better and safer. It’s basically about getting the planning right.”
Mr Guidera adds that the Madison site presented particular issues.
“Unfortunately, where the tower was sited is right on the public footpath,” he notes.
“To ensure the public were protected, we had to net the tower as we went. We fix a debris netting, a catch net, to the tower so that when we lift it into position, nothing can come off the tower.
“Additionally, we erected a gantry, which is the scaffold frame at the bottom that creates a tunnel over the pathway, so that if anything did go wrong, people would be protected.”
In an ideal world, of course, no materials or tools would be allowed to fall from height, which is why the firm has done all it can to ensure safety.
“All the tools, materials and men are tethered at all times,” explains Mr Payne.
“If you pass a material to somebody, it is tethered at all times so that if somebody were to drop it, it couldn’t fall.”
By simply varying materials, he adds that Brogan Group was able to eliminate the use of nuts and bolts once a section was craned into position.
“For example, with the handrails we use a spring clip – it is tethered to yourself, you put it in and then you take the tether off, so there is no chance of it falling,” Mr Payne says.
The same goes for the system used to attach the tower to the building. “Again, to eliminate any form of manhandling, we use turn buckles,” he says. “They’re quite heavy, so when we’re at the bottom we fit them to the tower.
“The same goes with the ties on the hoist. All these things have benefits in terms of speed, plus you don’t need any tools. It eliminates quite a bit of work and risk.”
As an additional precaution, Brogan Group ensured the tower was fully enclosed using a mesh – something that isn’t always in evidence on other tall-building projects.
“When you look at the tower, it has full-height mesh,” says Mr Guidera. “You will see other towers that don’t have that.
“Some people put plywood up, but that causes issues with wind loading and tends not to last as long.”
Even with the decision to use mesh rather than plywood, wind was still an issue with the Madison, in particular when it came to adding sections to the tower.
“[It] has been a real challenge because everything is craned into position,” says Mr Guidera, adding that while the building’s design may bring a distinctive aesthetic, it doesn’t help with the wind: “When the wind comes in from the east, the building channels it and causes almost a vortex around the building.
“You need quite precise crane supervision.”
Even without the additional issues presented by the building’s design, the sheer height of the Madison would have presented weather-related difficulties.
“We’ve been at the bottom of the building when it’s been fine, but when you get to the top, it’s snowing,” Mr Guidera says.
“Because it’s so high, you wouldn’t necessarily pick that up [from ground level].
“Sometimes what seems like a breezy day can actually be lethal, and we’ve had to just stand down and wait until the weather improves.
“That can set us back a day or two and we have to make up the time. We’ve always managed to do that – we’ve been lucky.”
Mr Payne agrees, adding that safety has to be the priority.
“It is basically the crane-operator’s decision whether it has to be called off,” he says.
“There have only been two occasions so far, so not many, considering we’ve done 25 lifts. If it’s spinning round, we wouldn’t be able to hold it, so it has to be taken back down.”
Safety concerns were also behind the decision to include a staircase in the tower.
“This one has a staircase built into it because of the fire strategy of the building – they don’t always come with [them],” Mr Guidera says.
“You can’t get up and down internally because they’re still working on the stairs while they fabricate the building.
“So they have external [ones] for the operatives in the building.”
Health and safety safeguarding is also aided by the fact that Brogan Group employees its operatives directly, meaning it has complete control over training and related issues.
“We have a specialist team of six guys who work solely on the towers – that is all they do,” says Mr Guidera.
“In addition, there is another team of four that just work on the hoists.
“They work in conjunction and have to coordinate the work on the tower and on the hoists.
“They’re all trained up on [both] but they are separate teams.
“In terms of the tower, we had training from the manufacturer and then we went on to train our guys as well.”
While Brogan Group has long experience of working at height as an access contractor, it is clear that the company has a culture of continually seeking new methods and processes.
“We visit other sites and look at how people do stuff and think about how we can improve on it,” Mr Payne says.
“It’s not a competition, but you do want to be the best at what you do.”