101 Embankment
27th September 2016

Building envelope contractor PRATER has completed a scope of works at the 101 Embankment office building in Manchester. Appointed by main contractor Carillion, Prater delivered a package which included a 360° unitised curtain walling façade – utilising off-site manufacturing.

101 Embankment is a 10-storey building, containing 165,000 sq ft of Grade A office space, and extensive car parking facilities.

The unitised system consisted of 1,160 panels. Prater’s responsibility extended to louvres, rainscreen cladding and structural glazing – in addition to a separate curtain walling system on the ground floor of the building.

Scott Bascombe, Package Manager at Carillion said: “Since the initial project discussions, we have been very impressed with Prater’s professionalism and expertise. The team has been very flexible in its approach, adapting its methodology to react to various elements on site and being pro-active in identifying and overcoming potential issues ahead.”

The structure of a unitised system means that individual panels cannot be isolated for removal post-installation, making stringent quality checks essential. Prater appointed AEL, a manufacturer local to the site to construct the panels for the unitised system.

William Morrison, Operations Manager at Prater concluded: “By utilising a nearby manufacturing site to construct the panels, it meant that we had tighter control over timing and could guarantee that all components were of the highest quality. Best practise recommends that 5% of a unitised system should be tested for leakage. However, given the scale of the project, in addition to the testing of each of the 1160 panels before delivery to site, our team also completed a 40-point check on each and every panel prior to installation. With Carillion and our own supply chain partners, we have worked as one, with an emphasis on health and safety and delivering the highest quality possible.”

The project video is at: http://www.prater.co.uk/blog/greengate-embankment-101-project-overview