Shard Place is a 17 storey commercial building with high-quality office and retail space suitable for corporate headquarters accommodation, next to the signature Shard development at London Bridge Station. Due to London Underground constraints below the site, only 45% of the plot was available for foundations. This created a complex interaction between the building and the adjacent bus and underground infrastructure, which required an integrated design and construction methodology that included the part of the building suspended from the upper levels to avoid overloading the transport assets. After their earlier success on The Shard project, Mace chose specialist subcontractor Byrne Brothers to execute the concrete substructure and superstructure on this contract. In turn, Byrne Brothers brought in RBG to support them with the complex construction engineering which we had also done on The Shard.
In the initial stages of construction, RBG had been involved in developing the construction methodology and temporary works design for the main contractor Mace, with particular focus on the interaction of the new scheme with the upgraded transport connections. This was a continuation of our previous work and knowledge from the adjacent Shard development. The project involved deep basement excavation adjacent to significant London Underground assets, including the running tunnels, Northern and Jubilee Line escalators and main ticket hall, requiring major structural adaptions of the existing smoke extract vent shafts in a live underground scenario.
RBG’s responsibilities included:
- A full and detailed peer review of the building structure design with full dialogue with the designers to resolve any matters considered in need of development;
- Provision of continuous technical support to Mace and Byrne Brothers where required to assist the delivery of the project to the requirements of end client Sellar Group;
- Monitoring of the technical information prepared by the Construction team for the construction of the building for compliance against the agreed requirements;
- Supporting the Construction team where the planned construction did not align with the agreed requirements;
- Review of the planned work of sub-contractors for alignment with the complex construction methodology and structural engineering requirements.
Project Metrics
Project Value:
£200M
Year Completed:
2016
Building Metrics:
40,000m² of office
2,000m² of retail
Sectors:
Commercial
Project Metrics
Client:
Sellar Group
Mace
Byrne Brothers
Architect:
Renzo Piano
Robert Bird Group Services
Construction Engineering
Structural Engineering