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Bamtec Roll-Out Steel Reinforcement Speeds Heathrow T2 Build

Under a four million pound contract, Hy-Ten has supplied Bamtec rollout steel reinforcement for the concrete aprons that form the basis of the new Heathrow’s new Terminal 2 building. The T2 building is one of the largest construction projects in the UK and certainly the most time critical. Being the world’s busiest international airport Heathrow has an urgent need to expand and upgrade passenger facilities.

Two 1.2 metre deep concrete aprons, each with an area of 45,000 square metres, form the main structure. These required 8,000 tonnes of steel reinforcement bar. Conventionally, this would all be placed by hand with each bar being manually wired into position, a time consuming and slow process. Given the complexity and time-critical nature of the project the Bamtec rollout steel reinforcement system offered an opportunity to advance the programme.

The Bamtec system eliminates time consuming on-site back breaking manual bar placement. Instead, in a quality controlled factory environment, reinforcement bars of the correct specification are pre-positioned by robotic spot welding machines into steel tapes. This creates a carpet of reinforcement. Each carpet is tagged, numbered and colour coded for easy positioning and rollout on site. This allows the steel fixing in a fraction of the time usually needed. Site labour demands are greatly reduced and the factory assembled system also provides greater quality assurance. Contractors using Bamtec are also more able to complete significant parts of the programme within the available weather windows.

Hy-Ten created a full depth, partial mock-up of the concrete slab reinforcement at their Liverpool works. This proved the speed with which the twin steel reinforcement layers could be positioned for the upper and lower zones of the floor slab.

Deep steel chairs were required to separate the upper and lower reinforcing layers in the deep slabs. Hy-Ten designed a bespoke roll-out device so that the upper layers of reinforcement could be placed by operators working at ground height, speeding the process and eliminating fall hazards. This device has now been patented and forms part of the Bamtec installation process.

Work on the aprons began in May 2010 and was completed in Spring 2011. Hy-Ten shipped up to 250 tonnes of steel reinforcement per week to the site with all deliveries precisely scheduled to meet the just-in-time steel placement programme. “There have been 72 concrete pours for the lower apron and for each pour we estimate that we have been able to reduce the steel placement time by two days compared to conventional steel fixing,” commented Hy-Ten director Richard Webster.

“This is a large scale and complex project taking place in the middle of a major international airport. Hy-ten have had to work within time access constraints imposed by the airport operator and meet stringent security criteria. We have met this challenge fully and helped keep our customer on track for this phase of the project,” commented Richard Webster.

More Information

Richard Webster, Director, Hy-Ten Ltd
Tel. +44 (0)151 525 1745 Fax. +44 (0)151 523 2252
E-mail: rkw@hy-ten.co.uk Web: www.hy-ten.co.uk
Hy-Ten Ltd, Bridle Road, Bootle, Merseyside, L30 4UG, UK

Release issued: March 8, 2011

Additional Facts

Heathrow is the largest international airport in the world, measured by passenger numbers, with 67.7 million passengers per year. The old T2 was designed to handle 1.2 million passengers per year, but was handling eight million by the time of its closure in November 2009. The new facility will eventually increase T2 capacity to 30 million passengers per year.

The new T2 will be built in two phases. The first phase will be completed in 2013 and will provide a total area of 180,000 square metres. Phase two will be completed in 2019. The overall investment in T2 and facilities at the eastern end of the airport will be £2.2 billion. This is just part of an overall programme by BAA of investment in facilities at Heathrow that will total £4.8 billion.

The new T2 will be the home to the Star Alliance Group of airlines. This comprises 36 international carriers, including majors such as bmi, United, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines.

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Two 1.2 metre deep concrete aprons at Heathrow T2 benefit from Bamtec steel reinforcement.

Each concrete apron covered an area of 45,000 square metres - Bamtec roll-out reinforcement carpet saved construction time.

Hy-Ten created a full depth mock-up of the concrete slab reinforcement at their factory to prove the speed with which the steel reinforcement could be positioned.

Bamtec steel reinforcement helped keep construction at the world's most busy airport on track.

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