Circle Square, Manchester

Circle Square is a £750 million development on the site of the former BBC building in Manchester. Being constructed as a new city centre neighbourhood in the heart of Manchester’s Oxford Road district, Circle Square will take eight years to complete.

It is being delivered over three phases and once fully finished, will include over 1,200 homes - both serviced apartments and private residential accommodation, more than 500,000 sq ft of offices, a 158-bedroom hotel, shops, restaurants, bars and more. Within this, 683 apartments are being built for Affinity Living across two 37-storey and 17-storey buildings. Two thirds of the scheme will be complete by 2020.

MPB Structures was selected by John Sisk & Son as the construction partner to deliver groundworks, reinforced concrete sub and superstructure packages on several buildings in the first phase of the commercial development at Circle Square.

Customer Name: MPB Structures
Project and Location: Circle Square, Manchester

Value: £175,000
Duration: 15 weeks

The Challenge

During the slipform phase, MPB Structures needed a hoisting solution to enable operatives to get into the slipform rig in the safest manner possible. This was required on three core structures - buildings 2, 4 and 6 - with a requirement to reach 60m, 80m and 115m high.

The Solution

Sunbelt Rentals provided a total of three twin passenger and goods hoists to facilitate construction of the cores through the slipforming process. The model provided was the twin Alimak 12/30 passenger and goods hoist which has a payload capacity of 1,200kg and the ability to transport up to 15 people at a time at a speed of 40m/min. As the Alimak 12/30 hoist has a maximum lifting height of 150m, it was easily able to reach the heights required for this project.

The Results

The hoists provided by Sunbelt Rentals have enabled the safe transportation of workers and materials during the slipforming phase of this landmark project which will create a whole new urban neighbourhood in Manchester. The hoists were progressively installed and were on-site for a total of 15 weeks.

Right from our first meeting with A-Plant, we were confident that our needs would bemet and that has proved to be the case. The on-site hire facility has proved to be a greathelp to both ourselves and our sub-contractors. I am extremely happy with the service received from A-Plant both on-site and from the Coventry Service Centre and I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending them. All equipment is received on time and in excellent working order.

Greg Farnath, M&E Contracts Manager, Balfour Beatty

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