Battersea Power Station is at the heart of one of central London’s largest, most visionary, and eagerly anticipated new developments, which will see this vast 42-acre former industrial brownfields site become home to a community of homes, shops, bars, restaurants, cafes, and offices and over 19 acres of public space. A huge part of this project that is located directly above the new Battersea Power Station tube station – part of Transport for London’s, Northern Line Extension project.
Phase 3B creates ‘The Electric Boulevard’, which will be the main gateway to the development, connecting the Northern Line Extension station with the Power Station. The phase includes more than 1,300 homes in a range of sizes and styles in two zones on either side of the boulevard, as well as a 160-room hotel, retail spaces, restaurants, and leisure facilities. Phase 3B largely consists of the residential buildings however It features a 13-storey commercial structure that utilizes structural steel for the Over Station Development which were both designed by architects Foster + Partners, while structural steelworks and metal decking were supplied by BHC Ltd.
Working alongside main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine, BHC supplied, fabricated, and erected 2,189 tonnes of steelwork. In addition, BHC were responsible for supplying and installing 20,219m2 of metal decking, edge protection and off-site fire protection.
An innovative plan was developed to assist with both the demolition and replacement of the NLE project to ensure that continuous structural support was provided to the building above, allowing them to be in full use throughout the duration of the project and helping to reduce temporary works steel tonnage by more than 60%.
Structural Engineers Robert Bird Group developed an alternative sitewide basement design which changed the logistics of ramping systems and car aisles, allowing for the reduction of 5,000m2 of basement area with minimal loss of parking spaces. The basement dig also allowed for the reduction in peak lateral movements of the NLE structure from a challenging 27mm to circa 12mm. This greatly reduced the rate of basement construction cost for BPSDC and minimised the risk of damage and fit-out non-conformances for TFL.
