Concrete Chimney Refurbishment

A 60k project to refurbish 2no 45m reinforced concrete chimneys at The University of East Anglia has been completed within program and within budget by Churchill Steeplejacks (UK) Ltd

The project was completed over a twelve week period with a three man team in attendance and included the replacement and repair of the capping arrangements, concrete repairs to each windshield, lightning protection upgrade and the application of a protective paint system.

A steel support framework was also installed around the summit of both chimneys to provide structural support to the upper regions of each windshield.

The cold weather conditions experienced during January and February 2009 delayed the application of the paint product which required temperatures of 5 degrees and rising, following the completion of the contract the chimney windshields will remain free of maintenance for at least the next seven year period.

Steel Chimney Emergency Callout

A steel chimney located at Eastwood Comprehensive School in Nottinghamshire fell victim of the strong winds that hit the county during the earlier hours 23rd March 2009.

Churchills received an emergency call out request from the school who feared the chimney was in imminent danger of falling over, Churchills dispatched a three man team to site together with a mobile crane and successfully dismantled the chimney just in time to preventing it falling into classrooms below.

Once the chimney had been successfully dismantled Churchills then set about arranging for the manufacturer and installation of a temporary smaller chimney section to be fitted to the remaining base section of the chimney to ensure the school could continue to provide hot water and therefore remain open.

From receiving the emergency call all of the aforementioned work was safely completed within a 12 hour period.

This was possible due to Churchills possessing in house Crane Appointed Persons who were able to plan and manage the lifting operations with minimum notice coupled with our fabrication capacity.

These photographs depict the chimney in it's precarious position upon our arrival to site.

The importance of the inspection and maintenance of this type of insulated steel chimney has been recognised by the Health & Safety Executive who together with the steeplejack federation A.T.L.A.S have issued guidance notes detailing a thorough inspection criteria. Unfortunately whilst this particular chimney had been regularly inspected it would appear that the inspector had not completed the survey in accordance with the aforementioned recommendations.

SPECIALISTS IN HIGH RISE DEMOLITION & STRUCTURAL MAINTENANCE

In 2004 Churchill Steeplejacks (UK) Ltd were awarded the contract to complete the external refurbishment of a115m tall concrete cooling tower at Ratcliffe On Soar Power station.

Following the successful completion of the contract that saw Churchills provide, install and maintain all motorised access cradles and complete the contract with no sub contract element the contract was extended for the following four year period to include 6 of the 8no cooling towers at Ratcliffe on Soar.

Each cooling tower project involved up to 12 operatives working on a tower at any one time from the motorised access platforms suspended from the summit of the tower

One of the biggest challenges faced was how to ensure safe access and egress for all operatives working on the tower together with ensuring systems for effectively rescuing and recovering operatives within a twelve minute period from any position on the tower were in place at all times. This was successfully achieved via the deployment of a full time rope access team positioned on the scaffold at the summit of the tower.

Over 56000 man hours were engaged and in excess of 5000 temporary anchor locations were installed to complete the six towers, all being completed within program, within budget and most importantly without incident.

Suspended Access Platforms in operation

Installation of access scaffold around the full circumference