Background
Working on behalf of City South Manchester Developments, Galliford Try Partnerships asked Sigmat to become part of a tripartite housing solution in the city. The goal was to seamlessly build 105 apartments in the Princess Road area, as part of the challenge to meet Greater Manchester’s on-going housing needs. Galliford Try were to lead the construction whilst Sigmat would be providing the Light Gauge Steel Frames and supporting ‘steel’ solutions.

Challenge
Sigmat’s Pre Contracts Director, said: “On the ground floor there were bin stores and plant areas that required ‘bridging over’. One of those areas required us to create a double height transfer structure in order to facilitate an entrance lobby to the flats. The additional challenge was integrating the Light Gauge Steel Frame (LGSF) with the hot rolled transfer steels, the latter being traditionally used to take heavier loads, in this case in the open plan communal floor areas which had wider spans.”

Solution
“Effectively there was a double challenge on site since we had to provide both integrated hot and cold rolled structural steel solutions. In many projects this often involves the main contractor having to engage more than one specialist supplier but, because Sigmat has both in-house design and manufacturing capability for both hot and cold rolled steel at its Cross Green and Skipton sites, this meant a one-stop-shop holistic steel solution could be provided,” added Sigmat’s Pre Contracts Director.

Benefits
Without doubt the ‘under one roof’ approach was key to the resounding success of the Manchester job which, at the outset, had real potential for ‘double trouble’. However, because of Sigmat’s vertical solutions approach – manufacturing and design in-house - it meant the client did not have to go to multi-suppliers, taking cost and time out of the project. Consequently there were no delays and everything was finished on time and within budget.

“In terms of the interface between both methods of construction – namely the use of hot and cold rolled steel – we had everything under complete control. Our ‘departments’ were quite literally a desk apart, so the benefits to the client were immeasurable; seamless control, monitoring and delivery. Very much a case of the right hand knowing what the left hand was doing all of the time!”