New steelwork guide cuts hospital costs

Substantial savings have been made on a steel framed medical treatment centre thanks to a new design guide on vibration in health sector buildings.

Published by the Steel Construction Institute (SCI), the principal objective of the 'Design guide on the vibration of floors in hospitals' is to advance the case for steel being specified for medical buildings where worries about vibration might previously have prevented its use.

"We now know and can prove that composite steel floors and beyond them steel frames have vibration characteristics suitable for the most demanding health environments," said the guide's co-author, Dr Stephen Hicks of the SCI.

The guide has already proved the beneficial vibration characteristics of the St Richard's Hospital Treatment Centre in Chichester and saved 40% of the steel framed structure's floor costs.

Using methods developed for the guide to analyse the structure, SCI was able to tell the structural consultant that it could remove a considerable quantity of the steelwork from its design and still have a safe, vibration free structure.

The guide has been published after a six-year research project commissioned by Corus. For copies of the design guide visit www.corusconstruction.com/hospitals.