Glasgow Royal Infirmary

Main contractor: Laing O’Rourke
Engineers: Dinardo Partnership
Type of works: design and installation of a barrier system including handrails and mesh infills.

The new multi-storey car park at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary is a six-storey steel frame structure with spiral entrance and exit ramps. Consultant Engineers Dinardo Partnership needed to find a safety barrier system that would act as a perimeter edge for the main parking decks in the absence of structural restraints. They also needed a system that could cope with the varying radius of the ramps and both had to incorporate an anti-climb handrail and mesh. Their prescription to main contractors Laing O’Rourke was a course of treatment by Berry Systems. They designed and installed nearly two kilometres of barriers plus nearly half a kilometre of standalone handrailing. Berry’s own design Berry Beams were favoured for most of the installation because of their aesthetics as well as performance to BS 6399 Part 1 and compliance with the latest recommendations from the Institution of Structural Engineers and the Institute of Civil Engineers. However, traditional W section barrier rails were used on the internal edge of the ramps because of the tighter radius.

Berry Systems was asked to design and install a barrier system including handrails and mesh infills to act as a perimeter of the car park on parking decks and spiral entry and exit ramps. The ramps were not a consistent radius and the barrier components had to be manufactured for specific locations.

Berry Systems supplied:

Perimeter barriers: 1,095m of Berry Beam mounted on GH spring steel buffers complete with handrail and mesh infill. Nearly 50% of the mesh infill needed to be specifically ‘Anti-Climb’.

Twice Force Applications: 243m of Berry Beam was mounted at 1m centres on RB1X spring steel buffers for ‘twice force’ applications.

Ramps - External Side:

376m of radiused Berry Beam mounted on RB1 spring steel buffers complete with ‘Anti-Climb’ Extensions, handrail and mesh.

Ramps - Internal Side:

175m of radiused barrier rail mounted on RB1 spring steel buffers complete with ‘Anti-Climb’ Extensions, handrail and mesh.

Other:

438m of 1.1m high handrailing.