London’s new-build station uses Dura Composites’ GRP grating panels

Dura Composites (UK) announced that it was approached by sustainable construction company, VolkerFitzpatrick to provide innovative and sustainable products for London’s first new-build station in over 10 years. Both Covid and Brexit had negatively impacted the procurement lead times for the formwork system that was originally intended for the project, so supplying our GRP formwork was a matter of urgency. Taking into consideration the required spans, loads, allowable deflection limits and overall design life expectations, the company identified suitable products from its d² Grating range. These products then went through both in-house testing and on-site practical demonstrations and supplied over 2000m² of d² Dura Grating Solid top 53mm and 41mm ahead of the tight deadline. We also devised a GRP barrier solution between the working platform and live OHLE equipment on site, using non-conductive 29mm d² Dura Grating Solid Top supported by Dura Profile Wide Flange Beam brackets. This meant that work could be carried out during the day without needing railway possession, saving four months of construction compared to alternative methods. The project used a total of 595 panels in a mixture of thicknesses and sizes, totalling 2,412m². Using our d² range instead of the previous generation grating available elsewhere in the market, the project saved a remarkable 100 tonnes of embodied carbon. Offsetting this amount of carbon would necessitate the combined effort of 4500 trees removing CO_² from the atmosphere for an entire year. This is equivalent to the space occupied by nearly three football fields.