Symphony Hall is set for a £13.5m redevelopment featuring a new entrance, extra bars and additional performance spaces. The world-renowned concert hall in Birmingham city centre will be remodelled as part of a project called ‘Making an Entrance’.
The scheme includes an extended glass front into Centenary Square, creation of more than 8,000 sq ft of new space, a dedicated front door separate to The International Convention Centre, extra bars and hospitality, over 6,000 sq ft of underused space brought into more productive use, new learning and education spaces, new corporate hospitality suites, relocation of the box office and an enhanced front of house performance space.
Project Scope
Investigative Survey and Testing of the existing Symphony Hall primary structure.
Objective
To determine form (size, cover, position & size of reinforcement) of structural elements. LDM carried out non-intrusive and intrusive work to provide sufficient dimensional and material details to identify the structural systems.
Non-intrusive works were performed using the Hilti PS250 Ferroscan to determine reinforcement cover, bar diameter and layout up to 100mm. A Hilti PS1000X-Scan was used to determine multi layers of reinforcement layout and cover up to 300mm.
Solution
Areas were scanned prior to cores to avoid damaging reinforcement. Cores were taken to various columns and tested for compressive strength. Areas were scanned prior to breakout to locate reinforcement position and cover to minimise breakout and avoid damage to the reinforcement.
A written description of location of areas surveyed and detailed description of work carried out:
- Location of samples taken, dimensioned from grid lines, with detailed description of samples taken
- Marked up dimensioned drawings and sketches indicating visible defects and the location of any photographs taken
- Full details of all laboratory tests performed and results
- Full details of reinforcement scanning (drawings/sketches)
- Breakout and cores were made good using a Ronafix mortar applied in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.
