The Heathrow Express is a high-speed rail link giving passengers the fastest journey time of 16 minutes between Heathrow Airport and Paddington Station in Central London.
The service was opened in May 1998 and runs from Paddington following the Great Western Main Line for 12 miles where it enters a five mile tunnel near Hayes.
From here it continues under the airport to 2 stations, one serving Terminals 1, 2 & 3 and a second four miles away beneath Terminal 4.
Upon completion of the tunnelling works in early 1997, Structural Renovations were invited by Laing Baily Joint Venture to carry out trial works and offer budgetary advice for the application of a decorative render to the platform tunnels at Heathrow Express Rail Link at the airport’s Terminal 4.
Flexcrete Ltd had previously designed a decorative render, Monolevel MF, for application on the Jubilee Line. At Terminal 4 this was modified to match the decorative precast GRC wall panels by incorporating a blend of selected micas from international sources producing a highly striking sparkle effect, quite unlike the traditional drab finishes normally associated with protective renders.
Following successful trials, at which a standard finish was established, Structural Renovations negotiated the contract for the preparation and application of the render to the curved concrete.Heathrow Express
walls to both platforms, the pedestrian tunnels and to concourse areas above.
Initially the surface of the concrete tunnel was prepared by controlled wet grit blasting to remove the surface laitance.
It was important to give full access to the platforms’ curved walls for the tradesmen to apply the render. This was achieved from specially designed multi decked mobile scaffold platforms with wheels on both the platform and track.
Working between the cast in V-joints and for the full circumference of each platform wall the 2 - 3 mm thick render was applied by hand in 1 or 2 passes and finished with a damp sponge to fully reveal the translucent mica inclusions.
Within the cross tunnels and concourse areas dummy joints were introduced to give a continuous finish matching the newly installed decorative GRC wall panels.
Over 8,500 m² of Monolevel was applied over a 6-month period with a team of up to 10 skilled tradesmen producing the aesthetically pleasing finish required.
In addition to the work at Heathrow Express further projects have been carried out for the Underground and DLR installing flexible grouts to the track and carrying out concrete repairs and protective coatings.
01753 825511 www.structren.co.uk
