Barnshaws curves ribs for new station roof
Huge curved steel ribs for the ultra-modern new roof of Manchester's Victoria Station have been completed by a Coseley firm.
Barnshaws Metal Bending's structural division at Anchor Lane has curved the steel sections that will be used in the 15 giant ribs over the grade II-listed station.
It is part of the £44 million redevelopment of the station for Network Rail.
The new £16 million roof structure has been designed to allow natural daylight to flood the station. The 1.2 metre deep and 500mm wide ribs have been curved by Barnshaws to multiple radii over the length.
They are currently being fabricated by Bolton-based Severfield-Watson Structures Ltd in welded box sections up to 24m long. Once on site, the sections will be welded together to form single ribs up to 96m long, before being lifted into position by a 750-tonner- crawler crane. Each rib will be lifted as a single piece and almost simultaneously connected at buttresses and columns.
A key design focus has been to achieve as lightweight a roof structure as possible, without compromising its strength. Steel was therefore selected ahead of heavier options, such as timber. Additionally, the use of lightweight, transparent and self-cleaning ETFE cladding has enabled the steel ribs to span further than if glazing had been specified.
Barnshaws commercial director Greg North said it had been a technically difficult job for the bending specialists. It had involved the company's team of 50 at Anchor Lane handling 130 tonnes of steel in total for the project which is due to complete in early 2015.
Mr North said that a number of big projects were now in the pipeline.
"It has been a lean time in the construction industry. The first thing that tends to stop in a recession is the architecturally fancy buildings, but there does seem to be an improvement," he added.
Barnshaws, founded in 1969, also has factories in Oldbury, Manchester and Hamilton, Scotland.