Southern General Hospital, Car Park

Amidst intense competition, this subcontract was awarded by Barr Ltd to ConForce in May 2010. This new Multi Storey Car Park is located at one of the largest hospitals in the UK and is part of a major programme of new building works being carried out at the site.

Comprising 4 suspended floors totalling 13000m², ConForce are providing full calculations and working drawings of the post tensioned floors. The site work includes the supply, placing, stressing and grouting of the tendons. The floors are on a typical 15.6 x 7.2m grid and a beam and slab deck is used with post tensioned beams spanning the 15.6m. Bonded tendons are used throughout, running one way in the beams and in the other direction in the slabs. Detailing of the beam steel allows it to be prefabricated and the tendons to be dropped into the beam cage insitu. Use of post tensioning in both directions not only provides concrete sections of minimum depth but also assists in crack control in the concrete – an important factor in car park decks.

The emphasis is on a simple efficient design which can be repeated wherever possible on each pour on the project. Each floor is cast in 3 pours with construction joints between, and RC infills around the stair cores to mitigate restraint effects. Tendon layouts, profiles, RC drawings, bar schedules and calculation packs are all produced for submission to the Contractor and the Engineer. Site works were successfully completed before the end of 2010.