One of the most elegant buildings to grace the City of London has to suffer the indignity, albeit temporarily, of having fencing erected around its ground floor to protect the unsuspecting public passers-by from things dropping upon them. 122 Leadenhall Street, known as the Leadenhall Building by most or 'The Cheesegrater by some, has lost a couple of its 'megabolts' recently - a bolt and nut fell to the ground from the fifth floor and a second bolt broke and landed on the access gantry on the nineteenth floor.
The 225 m (737 ft) tall Leadenhall building, designed by the firm of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, was largely constructed off-site with the megaframe made at specialist steelworks in northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is divided into eight sections, each 28 metres high and comprising seven floors, apart from the first section, which contains five. The steel columns and beams are connected by joints with nearly 3,000 threaded steel rods or ‘mega bolts’ connect all the steel parts together.
The company of Laing O'Rourke, who constructed the 47 storey building, and structural engineers Arup are currently busy applying ultrasound tests to each and every one of the remaining 'mega bolts', whilst the two failed bolts are undergoing rigorous laboratory inspection. This procedure is expected to push-back the imminent completion of the building by a few weeks at the most, a spokesman for joint owner, British Land said. He also stated that the building is not unsafe and that the fencing-off of the ground floor is a 'mere precaution'.
No comments:
Post a Comment