Refurbished to the letter of the law...

Wolverhampton Combined Court has undergone a major roof refurbishment, including the replacement of two large rooflights, during the ongoing lockdown periods of 2020. Tom Bates of Lareine Engineering, discusses the project.

Wolverhampton’s Combined Courts Centre in the West Midlands, combines Crown Court and County Court functions in one large building housing three courtrooms, as well as public areas, interview rooms, offices and other related spaces.

An imposing concrete structure originally constructed over thirty years ago, the building occupies a prominent position close to Wolverhampton’s busy city centre and mainline railway station.

In 2019, a survey revealed that the waterproofing to the concrete roof was starting to fail and there was water ingress through the rooflights in some areas, causing internal damage and structural concerns.

Important sub-contractor requirements

With a long and successful track record serving the legal sector, global construction group ISG was appointed as main contractor to carry out the work. Leading UK daylighting & ventilation specialist Lareine Engineering was sub-contracted to undertake the design and installation of new bespoke self-supporting rooflights with a total area of approximately 1,600m 2 . “With this type of project, compliance and working practices on-site are always paramount, so our choice of sub-contractor is extremely important. Lareine Engineering brought huge experience of large public sector rooflighting projects and ticked all the boxes in terms of regulatory compliance”, said Dave Hurdiss, Project Manager for ISG.

Beneficial daylight for court attendees

Daylight plays an important role inside the courtrooms.

On entering the building, visitors walk into the ground floor of a large, three storey atrium, topped by a quadrant shaped rooflight with a radius of approximately 13m. This provides a high level of natural daylight, giving the area an open and tranquil feeling: a welcome benefit to court attendees who may be feeling anxious or nervous before taking part in court proceedings.

Natural daylight has been proven in countless studies, to be a contributor to the health and wellbeing of building occupants. Lighting to the courtrooms is supplemented by daylight from a single, 40m x 6m dual-pitched lantern type rooflight. Internal blinds have been incorporated in each of the court rooms, to address a glare issue reported by court staff.

Doors to the vertical sides of the rooflight provide access from the roof to plant rooms situated between the courtrooms.

An evolved design

Lareine Engineering produced bespoke designs which were largely in keeping with the existing rooflights, to maintain the original appearance of the building. However, the glass specification was upgraded to Class 1 non-fragile, to ensure improved safety for personnel accessing the roof for maintenance. The acoustic performance of the main rooflight structure was also upgraded to provide improved sound quality inside the court rooms.

A further design upgrade involved the quadrant-shaped rooflight to the reception area which was re-designed to allow a wider gutter area surround, giving improved access for cleaning and maintenance.

The new designs all feature glazing bars to Lareine’s own custom design which has been well proven in

countless large scale rooflight projects all over the UK. These were powder coated to match the colours of the original rooflights.

Covid-safe site work

Site work commenced in late 2019, prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a brief break in activity in early 2020 during the national lockdown period.

When the site was re-opened following the lockdown, new Covidsafe procedures were introduced, in addition to the already stringent safety and security measures demanded for a construction project in the legal sector.

The rooflight installation over the courts was carried out in phases, all on night shifts, under a sliding portable structure. In this way, two courts were always able to remain open whilst the rooflight area to the third was being worked on. The night work ensured no noise nuisance to the court proceedings.

A successful completion

Despite the additional complexity resulting from Covid-safe procedures, the rooflight replacement has now been successfully completed, with very minimal delays.

At the time of writing, final works are progressing, with the new roof finish being applied and detailing works carried out.

Dave Hurdiss of ISG summed up: “The design and installation teams at Lareine Engineering have done a great job. We’ve relied on their professionalism and diligence, at what’s been a challenging time for the construction industry.”

A forty metre long rooflight delivers daylight to the courtrooms, with side access doors to plant rooms.

For further information, visit: www.lareineengineering.com