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One of largest concrete pours at Sellafield
A successful major concrete pour on the construction of Encapsulated Product Store 3 (EPS3) saw the combined Sellafield Ltd / Laing O’Rourke EPS3 project team set another project performance record on 21 July 2008.
1,400 m3 of concrete was poured over a thirteen and a half hour shift to complete the East side of the Vault slab in a single series of pours – the largest cumulative to date on the project, and one of the top 5 single-phase concrete pours ever to take place on the Sellafield site.
The 3,500 tes of concrete involved, which had a pour rate of over 100m3 (250 tes) per hour, equates to over three times the weight of the total Sellafield workforce, or over 2,000 family size cars.
After the first two transfer tunnel slabs were poured in April this year, the project team have not only increased the volume of each consecutive pour, from 850m3 to the current amount, but also maintained an outstanding safety record, without a single Lost Time Accident.
Speaking about this project milestone, Tony Perry, the project’s superintendent, said: “This is a project, which continues to go from strength to strength. The team continue to jointly set high standards and then work collectively to deliver against them. This project is a model example of Sellafield Ltd working with companies chosen from the supply chain, in this case Laing O’Rourke, to deliver ‘best in class’ project construction performance.”
This pour, together with the completed transfer tunnel base and the west side vault slab, means the overall base for EPS3 is now over 70% complete. The final infill pours over the transfer tunnel will be completed at the end of August, once the adjacent concrete panels have been placed for at least five weeks.
