THE EMBANKMENT
| Location | Salford, Manchester |
| Sector | Commercial Office Development |
| Main Client | ASK Real Estate |
| Main Contractor | BAM Construct UK / Carillion PLC |
| Architect & Engineer | Flanagan Lawerence & Ramboll |
| Steelwork Contractor | Elland Steel Structures |
| Westok Solution | 100: 400t Westok Cellular & 60t Westok Plate Beams 101: 350t Westok Cellular & 270t Westok Plate Beams |
MANCHESTER’S HISTORIC EXCHANGE STATION
On the site of Manchester’s historic Exchange Station, overlooked by the Cathedral, the magnificent 10-storey 101 Embankment has delivered 165,000 sq ft of Grade A office space, together with 442 covered car parking spaces. The building is an exemplar of clear-span column free floor plates Westok facilitate for modern Commercial/Office developments.
The development has recently been complemented with the addition of Embankment 100, a nine-storey block, offering a further 166,000 sq ft of Grade A office space, with each floor again offering stunning views over the River Irwell
APPROACHED BY ELLAND STEEL STRUCTURES
Westok’s involvement with the Greengates Embankment Development commenced with an approach by Elland Steel Structures to assist with value engineering design work on tower 101.
Westok reviewed various options and identified the most economical approach as 12-15m Westok cellular secondary beams, working in conjunction with Westok Plated primary beams. Each floor plate is column free; the grid comprises perimeter columns, supporting secondary beams framing to the central core, or to Westok plated primary beams in the four corners of the structure.
The secondary beams, with free pre-cambering, were designed with a continuous string of 400mm diameter cells for ultimate MEP integration potential. By maximising the composite metal deck span and reducing the overall quantum of secondary beams per floor, the piece-count was minimised. The optimised design provided the delicate balance between the need to produce an ultra-economic individual steel beam design and a sensible degree of beam type repetition, on a floor where every secondary beam is marginally longer or shorter than its adjacent partner due to the tapering footprint of the building perimeter.
The basement car park provided a further layer of complexity to the design of the towers. The core could not continue down through the podium deck from which towers 100 & 101 spring. Ramboll devised a steel framed transfer level, with short span / heavily loaded Westok Plate Beams generating the requisite grid-change at the critical transfer level.
EMBANKMENT 100
Embankment 100 is similar to its sister block, although one-storey smaller in height, the larger footprint delivers much the same footprint of BREAAM ‘Excellent’ floorspace. The larger foot-print of Embankment 100 is largely column-free, and again works on the concept of clearspan Westok cellular secondary beams, and plated Westok primary beams.
Adding further to the shimmering look of 101, 100 Embankment incorporates a curved façade and a 7m cantilever bullnose to the south western corner of the building. Tower 100 has also adopted the ever increasingly popular “exposed-structure look”, with the entire frame, floor soffits and services on display.
EMBANKMENT 100&101
Embankment 100 & 101 are perhaps the definitive Westok clear span office: offering the correct technical and commercial mix of optimised Westok Cellular and Plated Beams. No other specialist structural steelwork fabricator operating in Britain or Ireland can provide this solution.
The scheme has been awarded Commercial Development of the Year at the Insider North West Property Awards. Embankment 100 received a Merit at the 2018 Structural Steel Design Awards.
Kloeckner Westok are particularly grateful to the collaborative approach adopted by Ramboll, Elland Steel & BAM Construct UK.
