A grating system that offers a variety of installation techniques from Saint-Gobain PAM has enabled Galldris Construction to remove excess surface water inside the new Old Oak Common rail maintenance building for Crossrail trains.

The Operation, Maintenance and Control (OMC) building is part of a £150m new rail depot on the site. It will have nine roads, or rail tracks, for the maintenance of the nine carriage 200 metre plus long Crossrail trains.

Galldris needed a grating solution to remove surface water, which they could install without damaging the underfloor heating in the OMC building. Saint Gobain-PAM UK’s Mecalinea grating offered installers a number of different options to secure it in place; like any other grating it can be fixed in place using a bolt or screw, or for the areas where the underfloor heating is nearby its profile allows installers to use non-shrink pourable grout.

Lengths of the system can also be joined together using connecting pieces in its centre, making the whole grating system stronger and more durable.

Barrie McElhinney, project manager for Galldris Construction, said "Installing drainage channels to remove the surface water in the OMC building provided us with an unusual problem due to the proximity of the underfloor heating. The flexible fixing options offered by Saint Gobain PAM’s Mecalinea grating really helped us solve this."