BWB Consulting - Integrated Engineering and Environmental Consultants

Services:

• Civil Engineering
• Drainage Engineering
• Structural Engineering
• Geotechnical
• Environmental

Sectors:

• Residential

An iconic addition to Birmingham´s city centre skyline, opposite the Mailbox, the Orion Building with its impressive twenty six storey tower provided BWB with a number of significant engineering challenges.

The building will provide the bench-mark for luxury apartments for developer Crosby Homes, with phase two already having been commissioned.

Key engineering challenges on this project included:

• the construction of a deep basement adjacent to public highway and existing buildings
• high concentrations of vertical loading from the tower requiring the use of large diameter bored piles
• anti vibration mountings incorporated into the substructure due to the close proximity of the site to the main railway lines to New Street Station
• a vertical movement joint designed to accommodate thermal loads and differential movement between non-attenuated and attenuated elements, and to transfer lateral loads
• the retention and incorporation of a Victorian brick built façade requiring lateral restraint form the reinforced concrete flab slab frame and an ability to accommodate differential movement. Discharge of the section 278 agreement and a stage 1 and 2 safety audit