Reinforcement of pedestrian block paving for Versalift access – Library of Birmingham
Sectors:
Using: 2.5m x 1.25m x 25mm (8ft x 4ft x 1 inch) Anti Skid – Steel
The Library of Birmingham, sited in the pedestrianised ‘Centenary Square’, Birmingham, wanted to install an eco-friendly and energy efficient combined heating and cooling units. To do this, rather bringing in a truly massive crane, capable of reaching over the entire building, the installation engineers wanted to use a versa-lift heavy duty forklift on an area only specified for pedestrian use and being paved with decorative block paving. These versalift machines are incredibly powerful, capable and compact, but they do have drawbacks in terms of the overall mass of the machine, but more relevantly, the small diameter, solid wheels, point load very heavily on any supporting roadway and substrate.
Without mitigating these issues, the versalift would have at least caused significant damage to the pavement, or worse still, may even have broken through and become stranded.
So with a bit of help from our technical boys who suggested the laying of some Terram/Geotextile flock material first, some 28 number 2.5m x 1.25m x 25mm (8ft x 4ft x 1 inch) Anti Skid – Steel plates, complete with SALLY sockets, were used as a runway for the machinery. These were brought in and laid with our much lighter 2 tonne forklift, and having the SALLY’s meant that we could lift them in and out of position from directly above, precisely, and without disturbing the flock and therefore having no risk of bruising the paving blocks.