Rusham Park, Egham
H&S Asbestos were appointed as Principal Contractor by Balfour Beatty to undertake the asbestos removal on the site of office space and laboratories in Egham, which is owned by Royal Holloway, University of London.
We completed the full asbestos removal program of works to multiple buildings within the Universities Estate at Egham Surrey. The former teaching and welfare blocks consisted of seven large multi-level buildings and several smaller outbuildings.
We were employed by Balfour Beatty to carry out the project on behalf of Royal Holloway University of London for the comprehensive asbestos removal, followed by full demolition and crushing of concrete materials to make way for the erection of new teaching facilities in that location.
Before we could start the work, comprehensive health and safety measures had to be put in place with the issue of multiple sets of RAMS for all aspects of our asbestos removal operation. These included both licensed and non-licensed products ranging from floor tiles and adhesive, textured coatings, cement products to insulation board and pipe insulation.
The HSE were notified of each set of works, for both licensed and non-licensed removal. This gave the team a set window of time to complete the work within, whilst the project management maintained the desired program with the client.
As the Central District Heating Room (Branson) was contaminated, the area needed to have pre-cleaning executed, therefore access to the heating room had been restricted to our authorised personnel who undertook thorough decontamination works wearing RPE and PPE before any further asbestos work could begin.
We then enclosed the entire heating room of approximately 2,813 cubic meters. This was carried out under fully controlled conditions, which involved the construction of sealed enclosures subject to negative pressure, using industry specific HEPA filter air moving units. All material was wetted so far as practicable and the enclosures were subject to stringent visual inspections and air testing by an Independent analytical laboratory during and upon completion of the removal operation.
Each enclosure had 3 stage air/bag locks erected and attached for access and egress from the work area by our personnel. A mixture of viewing panels and CCTV were used to supervise the removal operation and adequate warning signs were fitted/installed within the enclosure and air/bag locks as specified. Barrier tape and signage was used to delineate the waste and transit routes.
All contaminated plant, equipment and the walls which had insulation residue on were extensively cleaned by hand using recognised techniques in line with current regulations.
This work also involved some areas of external pipe ducting which ran concurrently with the above plant room as a separate enclosure along with several other smaller plant rooms located within other buildings.
Throughout the work we worked closely with the clients appointed independent UKAS accredited analytical Laboratory to ensure all fibre release was kept to as low as reasonably practicable throughout all aspects of this project, this included personal monitoring, Leak testing and reassurance testing.
Across the site, our team also achieved zero accidents or incidents in line with the client’s targets. Toolbox talks and daily activity briefings were also utilised to ensure the team were on top of all SHEQ requirements for the work.
Following the removal of all ACM’s, the work areas and all access equipment was thoroughly cleaned in accordance with SHEQ standards.
The aforementioned works were completed over a nine-month period, with a contract value of £300,000, ahead of our demolition division undertaking their complex dismantling and demolition project.
