Creating New Spaces + Retaining the Old
New developments are exciting. They offer the opportunity to improve our urban environment giving new living spaces, shops, offices and social amenities.
Development projects can also contain structures that have significance to the heritage of an area. Careful and sympathetic planning can incorporate the old with the new to keep a permanent reminder of local and national history.
Eatec Dynamics monitoring capabilities and its technical expertise can help prevent structural damage to important project assets and to aid in heritage preservation.
CASE STUDY
A Balancing Act
The old Redcliffe Quarter, once warehousing for the historic Bristol docks, is to make way for a new complex of restaurants, shops, offices, homes and a hotel. The developer has chosen to preserve part of the site’s maritime heritage, retaining a 19th century façade of architectural merit.
To guard against loss of a unique heritage façade, and to help ensure site safety, Galliford Try engaged Eatec Dynamics to monitor vibration levels throughout the redevelopment.
Exceedance Criteria
Damage or even collapse of the façade could occur if vibration from demolition or construction work is severe. To avoid this, Eatec Dynamics first determined an exceedance level to trigger a warning system for potential low frequency vibrational damage.
Remote Monitoring
To monitor for possible damage events, Eatec Dynamics installed its bespoke vibration monitor to simultaneously measure vibrations at the base and parapet of the warehouse façade.
The monitor’s on-board processer continually compares vibrational data against the exceedance criteria. Real-time data is also relayed over a mobile telecommunications network for reporting.
System automated exceedance notifications alert Eatec Dynamics’ engineers and Galliford Try staff to an exceedance event. Knowledge of site activity aids in identifying real events, excluding items such as an accidental sensor knock.
When it can be shown that an event is potentially damaging to the façade, Eatec Dynamics use their expertise to discuss with the site managers, ways of reducing the vibration levels and alerting workers to possible safety hazards.
Reporting
Weekly reports summarise measured vibrational metrics. With site activity logs, this information shows which activities had the greatest effect on the façade vibration levels. Understanding activity and vibrational response helps ensure the façade is not damaged and workers’ safety is well managed.
Benefits + Achievements
Continuous remote monitoring has ensured a heritage building façade remains integral to the plans of a Bristol redevelopment of a historic city quarter. The client has limited his exposure to material and heritage loss, and put in place a means to manage site safety.
