Falls Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 Hi, You don't see buildings with steel frames much these days. When I was in Sheffield late last year, I notice there is a new steel-frame one going up on Blonk Street next to the Don. Placing steel on structures up to four or five floors is kids stuff these days. You just bring in the right size crawler crane or a mobile with a telescopic boom and the jobs easily done - except if the wind's blowing. Before that, you either used a Gin-pole with a bunch of winches, or if the job was large enough, you used a thing called a Scotch Derrick. The gin pole was primative,slow and dangerous while the derricks were a little faster but usually fixed in one place. The Scotch Derrick, as the name implies, was from north of the border and I believed developed for the granite quarries around Aberdeen. Eventually they were all over the world. The early ones were either hand operated or steam. Only later ones were Electric. When they built the Walsh's (now Hughes) store in the early 1950's, Geo. Longden's used at least one Scotch derrick that travelled on rails. This was a novelty. I only remember two Scotch derricks in Sheffield: one was in in Henry Matthews' wood yard - on the side of the Don - behind the old Victoria Station. The other was in the structural steel yard at Charles Ross. Their works were behind the shops on Heeley Bottom, opposite the end of Broadfield Road. There may have been other dericks in the scrap yards in the east end. Does anybody remember any of this or am I getting too old? Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 The main reason is that many more people are using concrete frames. The price of steel has been so volatile in the last few years that early design decisions are being made to use concrete. In addition, new techniques for concrete flat slab and beam are enabling smaller storey heights than was previously possible. Also, until you get to 4 storey there's usually no progressive collapse issues so no frame is necessary so a lot of buildings are going up with old fashioned masonry construction , or partially reinforced masonry above that. Times change like you say Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falls Posted January 31, 2007 Author Share Posted January 31, 2007 The main reason is that many more people are using concrete frames. The price of steel has been so volatile in the last few years that early design decisions are being made to use concrete. In addition, new techniques for concrete flat slab and beam are enabling smaller storey heights than was previously possible. Also, until you get to 4 storey there's usually no progressive collapse issues so no frame is necessary so a lot of buildings are going up with old fashioned masonry construction , or partially reinforced masonry above that. Times change like you say Hi, Steel framing has just about died out here as well. All the high-rise buildings are R.C. Same with the bridges, although there are a few new ones that have box-girders with R.C. decks Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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