Under contract to Balfour Kilpatrick, Premier Pits has successfully built and installed 2 prefabricated service pits for the passenger transfer railway at Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 building, which opened to the public on March 2008.
The brief was complex as Premier Pits had to operate in a restricted working area with very tight tolerances set for the finished pit. The Premier Pits approach met the brief with efficiency and flexibility, vital for a project of this size and complexity.
The 54 metre pits were installed at the ends of the unmanned rail link between the main terminal and the satellite terminals. The pits were fitted out, prior to delivery, with train guide rails plus safety lights and other services.
Installation posed a real challenge. After being manufactured and fitted out at Premier Pits’ factory and delivered by road, the pits were lifted, in sections and lowered, through the roof to their final position: 12.5 metres below ground level. The timing of this was crucial to the whole operation.
Mike Rumsey, project manager for Balfour Kilpatrick, said that using Premier Pits meant that the pits were installed in a fraction of the time it would have taken if they used the more the more traditional method of reinforced poured concrete. He went on to say that “all dimensions were well within the very tight tolerances set”.
Mel Burrell, MD of Premier Pits, explained “Terminal 5 was a particularly challenging project. However, the manufacturing and installation expertise we have built up over the years meant we were able to achieve and even exceed everything that was asked of us”.
