Francis Crick Cancer Research Laboratory

Construction

Francis Crick Cancer Research Laboratory, London. The Francis Crick Institute is a biomedical discovery institute dedicated to understanding the scientific mechanisms of living things. Its work is helping to understand why disease develops and to find new ways to treat, diagnose and prevent illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, infections, and neurodegenerative diseases. The Francis Crick Institute is a consortium of six of the UK's most successful scientific and academic organisations – the Medical research Council, Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust, University College London, Imperial College London and Kings College London.

New build project for a combined research laboratory in the centre of London.  We were asked to provide Coatings for over 130 tonnes of the structural steel used throughout the building. Clearly this was a key critical component with a high profile within this £650 million pound project.

An extremely tough and durable finish. FBE is a specialist coating material often used on pipework, valves and Steel Reinforcing bar. The coating provides long term adhesion, insulation and protection from corrosion to the steel. The product protects from alkaline substances within the concrete attacking the steel and causing corrosion, The term ‘concrete cancer’ is often used where swelling occurs within the steel and concrete structure and the material cracks. This product protects from this issue.

Based in Wales our customer required us to deliver the steel once processed directly to site. This was handled externally using one of our many transport partners.

Volume and time scale where our major hurdles within this project. Work was processed to a strict time scale, as we were not to hold up construction on site at any point. The cost to not being able to pour the concrete at a specific time was potentially massive. Through careful planning and communication with our customer we were able to process the material and demonstrate that the end product would not only comply with the relevant legislation but also provide the required durability. Having met this challenge the project was completed with minimum fuss to the main contactor on site within his own call off programme.