The Hall of Cornwall Theatre, Truro.

At a Glance

The Hall for Cornwall is a theatre venue in Truro. Initially built in the mid-1800s, at the peak of Cornwall’s tin trade, the granite walled Grade II-listed building has at times throughout its history functioned as a town hall, courtroom and police station, skating ring, and flea market. In 2018 Kier was awarded the contract to completely refurbish the theatre without sacrificing its history and open up the auditorium increasing its capacity by 27%. The vision of this £21.6 million project was to develop a theatre similar to those in other major cities. Kier awarded Relinea to supply and install the intermediate support system and GRP grating for the rooftop plant decking.

Client

Kier South West

Location

Cornwall
, Truro

Services

Design, Installation, Supply

Products

GRP Rooftop Access Platform

Explain your needs

Problem/Challenge

Kier wanted to ensure the impact of the loading from the rooftop plant deck was as low as possible. They also wanted to keep the number of roof penetrations to a minimum.

In addition, site access was very restricted with a 2.5m wide archway being the only access for plant and materials.

Solution

Relinea’s design team supported Kier in the development of a plant deck support system that was a hybrid of steel and GRP.

The use of steel for the main supports spanned the main runs of 10 m plus and Relinea’s Re-Struct GRP pultruded beams were then used for all the intermediate supports.

This hybrid system significantly reduced the overall weight of the support frame in comparison to a full steel system. The combination of using steel for the long main spans reduced the number of support penetrations through the roof, whilst the use of GRP beams reduced the weight by 80%.

In addition, the use of Relinea’s Re-Grid GRP open mesh grating provided a further weight reduction of 60% in comparison to a steel alternative.

Our design team provided full details of the support system to the steelwork contractor which ensured the steel could be predrilled to suit the GRP supports.

Due to very tight restrictions on-site, the grating was pre-fabricated and sent to the site in batches, and loaded onto the roof using a crane. Our fully trained installation team then completed the installation of the GRP support system and grating.

The combination of steel and GRP worked exceptionally well in meeting Kier’s 2 main objectives of weight and roof penetration reduction. Relinea’s design team have vast experience in coordinating the multiple stakeholders on-site to ensure a project runs smoothly.