We Take The Stairs at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall

The Usher Hall is Edinburgh’s premier concert venue situated just up from the West End of Princes Street, off Lothian Road.

Opened in 1914 the building was an architectural backlash against Victorian Gothic, with a return to elegant French classical features of the Beaux Arts style. In concrete cutting terms: less columns & beaucoup façade.

Its striking design was only made possible by the early 20th century use of reinforced concrete to allow a curved dome and walls to provide acoustic perfection not previously possible.

Almost 100 years of constant use and new access legislation has required the hall to have a major internal refit. April 2nd 2007 saw the official start of the works to produce a refurbished and upgraded Usher Hall.

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This will be a 21st Century Concert Hall with much improved facilities and space, including the re-construction of the side of the building facing onto Grindlay Street. It is an historic and exciting phase in the Usher Hall’s development and who better to assist with the precision works than Clyde Valley Drilling.

CVD have so far been involved in the controlled demolition of the western internal staircase.

To enable the work to proceed CVD cut a 5m by 10m opening in the historic roof by track sawing through the century old concrete. This was not without surprises: 1900’s rebar is not quite as regular as recent developments and requirements.

The staircase was carefully removed by coring each stair tread with two No. 125 holes for slings, then stitch drilling each tread along the junction of the existing staircase wall to free it from the building structure. The treads were craned out singly through the roof using a remote control crane operated by CVD operatives, who were trained on-site by the crane supplier in a few hours.

This was significant advantage to the main contractor who did not require a crane onsite for the project at this time. To comply with Edinburgh’s airspace requirements, the crane’s jib also had to be folded down into the site compound each day before 5pm.

The ‘portable’ crane enabled CVD’s drillers to remove all the cut material and mobilise equipment between floors.

The stair landings were sawn by track saw and lifted out in sections, then the stringers were then cut into sections and also craned out through the roof.

A Brokk demolition robot was tracked up the adjacent emergency staircase and demolished it from the top down to the ground floor. CVD’s Brokk 90 is extremely manoeuvrable and ideally suited to the tight site constraints of a staircase such as this. Once each level was reached all debris was removed to the site skips.

The second phase starts in September 2007, with CVD providing all structural demolition and concrete cutting works which are expected to last through to 2008.

The CVD crane will be back on Auld Reekie’s Skyline soon.

Edinburgh's Usher Hall website>>

For more information on this landmark project contact Bill Gordon on 0845 450 1701.