Civil Engineering March 2022 | Vol 30 No 2

14 March 2022 Civil Engineering equally important factors to this project’s overall success. Managing, sorting, and installing thousands of unique components is a difficult task. However, with a competent team working in a collaborative manner, this complex task was broken down into a series of simple steps, which were implemented diligently and successfully. This entire process was further complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which severely impacted the movement and availability of materials, putting great pressure on the project timeline. Since the roof installation was required to close the building envelope to allow for building finishes to commence, its installation was thus on the project critical path. A further installation challenge was posed by the limited site space. The construction site only allowed for a single tower crane, which limited the speed at which the glass could be installed, as the installation of the larger glass panels required the use of the crane to hold each panel in position while being fixed to the steel subframe. In addition, the installa- tion could not be undertaken in damp or windy conditions. As a result of these fac- tors, accelerating the installation process was not possible. To mitigate the risk of delays, the contractor was instructed to install temporary waterproofing measures and hoardings to cordon off areas of the building from the weather and permit the internal fit-out work to continue. Internal axial forces within the gridshell structure LEAFLogo(full).JPG PSG system and ECG system used to support the glass (Credit: Novum Structures) Glass panel layout and arrangement within a single triangular steel grid (Credit: LEAF Project Drawings)