By Ashley Karen
A multidisciplinary team of experts has gathered to handle the difficult reinforced concrete works at Tideway’s Heathwall Pumping Station site.
A geometric reinforcement cage has been installed at the junction where sewage is going to enter the key shaft from the smaller interception shaft. At peak flow, this junction can see up to 12m³ of water per second, thus, the importance of the steel reinforcement to improve the overall strength of the concrete.
The reinforcements are tied to form the circular shape of the tunnel, but it demands a transition to a rectangular shape for the vortex generator as well which is immediately downstream.
The work has contained a great deal of planning and input; designers have created different sets of drawings for shape, waterproofing, and reinforcement design and senior engineers have used these to build a safe, high quality and efficient building methodology. A team of supervisors, steel fixers, and carpenters have then turned these plans into reality.
The Project Manager of Tideway’s Heathwall Pumping Station site, Alex Alchin, stated: “the best-laid plans can be made for this type of work, but it is highly dependent on the skill and experience of the steel fixing operatives. It is a very specialist trade to read and understand reinforcement drawings and then tie all the steel in the correct order to form the correct shape. The tradespersons are the real heroes of this work”.
When the reinforcements have qualified in the control test, in the next stage carpenters will install a temporary mold into which concrete will be poured and allowed to set. This is just one of four similar portal structures at the Heathwall site alone.
