Mace Group purchased the units directly and free-issued them to the steel frame contractor, VBH JV (a joint venture ofHollandia and Victor Buyck). Some of the units were 7m x 1.5m wide which Ambar Kelly designed to incorporate horizontal fire protection and drylined fire walls as part of the RiserSafe® system. This allowed for a group of shafts, or openings, to be combined into one unit, which reduced the number of trimmer steels and concrete beams required for walls, thereby reducing crane lifts and construction time.

Another advantage was the reduction in temporary fire doors required in risers. RiserSafe® has been tested for 90 minutes at the British Research Establishment (BRE) with a temperature of 1000oC underneath without failure to its integrity. This means that when the riser shaft is closed with RiserSafe® the risk of the spread of smoke and flame through the hole is eliminated which in turn means that temporary fire doors to risers do not need to be procured for the construction phase. When used in conjunction with fire stopping compounds, RiserSafe® has been tested and shown to provide a 120-minute fire-rating for integrity and insulation.

As well as removing the risk of working at height, the presence of RiserSafe® also eliminated the potential spread of smoke and flame during construction, created multiple work fronts to speed up the programme before becoming the client’s riser maintenance floor. Together this has proved that Ambar Kelly’s patented system can hit the mark on quick project delivery, cost savings and most importantly, safety.

Client feedback: “I would say that my experience of riser safe on 70SMA has been very positive.”

Photography: Courtesy of James Reid Photography.