With thousands of schools, colleges and universities all over the country, the UK is one of the best places in the world in which to receive high-quality education. It is essential that the buildings of educational establishments are maintained to an impeccable standard, providing a safe environment in which to work and learn. Mitchell's Scaffolding have designed and built scaffolding and access structures to facilitate such repair and maintenance work, including a large-scale project at Rochdale College.
The main Rochdale College building required major renovation, including extensive repairs to the structure's beams in order to restore structural integrity. Throughout the renovation works, which were scheduled to take place over several weeks, the college was to remain open and functioning as usual. This meant that, as well as designing and installing scaffolding to provide unrestricted access to building contractors, our team was also tasked with providing a safe, accessible route to the main campus for staff and students.
To ensure that students with disabilities could continue to safely access the site, we installed a temporary wheelchair ramp at the entrance of the building. This ramp had to span a sunken service road and so our team included a bespoke design in our plan.
Spanning the service road involved designing and installing a structure that was based on robust steel ladder beams; using smooth precession joints, these were boarded out with timber from the scaffold boards. We ensured that no tripping hazards were present and added a non-slip surface cover and handrails to further enhance safety.
Building work was able to start and proceed quickly thanks to cradle support which our team erected above the building's entrance. All of the many design elements were carefully devised and strictly adhered to, ensuring that they could be accurately linked together.
Our plan worked exactly as it was meant to, allowing building and renovation work to be carried out with minimal disruption to the students and staff at Rochdale College. Once the work was complete, our team moved in to dismantle the temporary structures, leaving the area clean, tidy and safe.
To find out more about our scaffolding work, check out the 'Portfolio' section of our website.
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