Lakesmere success at Ravenscraig sports facility

Building envelope specialist Lakesmere helped meet the construction challenges in building the new regional sports facility at Ravenscraig, to be used by Scottish Olympic and Commonwealth athletes.

The elaborate building design - courtesy of architect Populous - boasts 19 roofs on the athletics building, 14 on the football hall, five on the sports hall and five on the dance and fitness studio.

The east and west walls comprise 11.4o trapezoidal sheets and the south elevation, metallic silver sinusoidal sheets.

The north elevation and roofs also feature polycarbonate facade and roof lights.

Installing the 22,000 square metre scheme to the sporting giant's roof and walls, while maintaining the bespoke look and feel of the project, called for Lakesmere's heavy-weight expertise and main contractor Balfour Beatty called on Lakesmere's Glasgow office to undertake the ten-month install.

Lakesmere was involved in the project from an early stage to ensure the structural steelwork was positioned correctly to support the elaborate roof and wall geometry.

The company's designers were also instrumental in ensuring Populous' aim of making a feature of the gutters and downpipes was honoured by designing dark grey maintenance panels housing the guttering to complement the building's metallic silver roofs and walls.

Drainage from the roof required exhaustive calculations to ensure the proper management of rainwater and hopper boxes were placed on each gutter run and integrated into the wall cladding behind feature flashings.

The pitch of each roof varied in degree, posing a complex challenge for Lakesmere's installation team.

Each roof also had to be completed on time to coordinate with the delivery and installation of the Prokulit polycarbonate roof lights - a huge challenge when working through some of the worst weather conditions on record.

Lakesmere's installation team worked tirelessly to ensure the roofing works were completed on programme and extensive coordination with Prokulit was another key factor in the project's success.

Allan Middleton, Project Manager, Balfour Beatty said: "Lakesmere had the experience to suggest innovative solutions to ensure the complex installation was completed to a high standard".

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