Transport

Manchester Airport (Terminal 2)

  • investment project £1 billion
  • increase to Terminal 2 size 150%
  • m2 floor area increase 81,000

Manchester Airport underwent a ten-year, £1 billion transformation programme beginning in 2017. The first part of this programme was a radical update to Terminal 2 which saw the entire western half of the building demolished and rebuilt to increase its size by 150%. The project for Exyte Hargreaves consisted of manufacturing, delivering, and installing a complete smoke extraction system. This included installing the free issue of plant equipment into the smoke system as part of the Terminal 2 extension at Manchester Airport.

Project Brief

Exyte Hargreaves was contracted to design, manufacture, deliver and install a complete smoke extract ventilation system for the new terminal extension. This also included the installation of main contractor supplied components as well as supply, delivery and installation of secondary support steelwork and bespoke fan frames for the smoke extract ventilation system.

Project Challenges

The work was carried out over a 16-month period using Exyte Hargreaves HFD-CE-SID fire rated smoke extraction ductwork and HFD-SID fire rated ductwork. The physical size of some of the ventilation system elements, required innovative thinking particularly around constructability and logistical processes. The largest size duct component was sized at 5.2m x 2.7m cross sectional area (roughly equivalent to a medium size office space). This had to be designed in a way that it could be physically manufactured, checked, then dismantled to a flat pack state for transportation and to enable it to fit through some of the restricted access areas on site and then finally rebuilt in situ.

These challenging dimensions required a coordinated delivery schedule to ensure product arrived on site ‘just in time’.

The ductwork was designed to a maximum length of 1m, ensuring that the installation team could physically manoeuvre ductwork on site. They were able to physically reach fixings and flange bolts at an arm’s length, thus avoiding unnecessary safety complications.

Fire Rated Ductwork

Exyte Hargreaves manufactured the external casing of the attenuators on the roof of the building, making it a compliant fire rated product. Large smoke extraction ventilation plenums were installed to serve the main lobby areas, with built in steelwork fan frames. Our innovative thinking and design allowed fans to be supported elsewhere. Immediately above the structural steelwork there was not enough load capacity to allow the weight of the fans to be supported conventionally.

The attenuators could not be sourced as a complete item to comply with the fire rating specification.

As a solution, attenuator pods were supplied free issue and a compliant fire rated external casing was manufactured to house them. This meant that should the attenuators ever need replacing, only the pods themselves would need to be replaced as the casing would be retained as the fire rated compliant section.

Exceeding expectations at T2

Completed: 2020 | Project Value: £1.72 million

The smoke extract ductwork product was designed and manufactured as a single metal component body without any additional coatings needed to provide the fire rating element. This reduces the amount of materials and elements used at source. In the event of a fire scenario, the potential emissions released by additional coatings exposed to a fire condition are also reduced.

The smoke extract system operates as a stand-alone safety system and only in the event of a fire and during periodic testing. This is opposed to a traditional building extract system operating as dual purpose for general extract ventilation and continuing as smoke extract ventilation in the event of a fire.

"The installation progressed exceptionally, meeting the schedule required by the client. This was possible due to a detailed upfront design coordination with site and logistical planning carried out by Exyte Hargreaves. The installation team were recognised throughout the project for exceptional environmental, health and safety performance throughout the entire project duration. We achieved top of the contractor’s performance league on multiple occasions."

Ryan Gorman

Operations & Business Development Director

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