Eastgate Shopping Centre Car Park
Summary
- Volker Laser Ltd appointed Corecut as specialists in Diamond Drilling and Sawing
- The project at the Eastgate Shopping Centre, Inverness is one of the biggest Floor Sawing projects ever attempted in Scotland
- As the car park was operational during opening hours, the work could only take place at night
- The top 65mm of concrete in the multi-story car park was to be removed in preparation for a new layer of structural concrete
- The floor saw was used to make 65mm deep grooves at 60mm intervals to allow the concrete to be easily broken out
- Over 12 months 250,000 linear metres of concrete was cut
Background
The Eastgate Shopping Centre opened in 1983 and serves Inverness and the surrounding areas. It has over 60 stores with 1,350 parking spaces for customers. Over the years, the concrete decks within the car park had deteriorated after cars carried de-icing salts in from the roads which contained corrosive chlorides. Refurbishment work began on the three-level car park in July 2010 and would continue until November 2011. The work involved the removal and replacement of 12,600 square metres of concrete, with the top 65mm of concrete removed. Originally Hydrodemolition was proposed but this proved impractical in a shopping centre environment so a less disruptive method was devised.
The Project
As the car park was operating during the day, all work had to be carried out throughout the night. The floor saw was used to make 65mm grooves in the concrete at 60mm intervals allowing the existing concrete to be easily broken out. A minimum of 1300m of cutting was achieved during each night, with a total 250,000 linear metres of concrete to be cut throughout the duration of the project.
250,000 linear metres of concrete was cut in just 12 months
Corecut opted to use a combination of the new Vortex and Titan-X diamond blades from Norton Nimbus as they offered the desired speed and life. The sawblade used for the majority of the work was the Titan TX40.
Finlay Crocker, Managing Director of Corecut commented, “The tight schedule and sheer size of the job meant it was essential to hit the ground running to ensure we obtained the right balance between production output and cost as quickly as possible. The Norton Nimbus blades proved to be the best solution, enabling us to be on course to complete the contract efficiently and on time.”