R1 R&R Sept '16 52 cc

Fire Protection, Safety & Security
Fläkt Woods provides a ventilation & fire
safety for Birmingham New Street station
Fläkt Woods, a market leader in air movement technology, has supplied a ventilation and fire safety system at Birmingham New
Street station, which was installed during the £750m transformation of the facilities.
Birmingham New Street platforms at night
Birmingham New Street tunnels - West Midlands
Fire Service perform exercise prior to opening
Birmingham New Street station was
officially opened by Network Rail in
September 2015, following a five-year
refurbishment programme. With an iconic
new atrium over a passenger concourse five
times the size of London Euston's, the station
has brighter, de-cluttered platforms, improved
entrances and a range of new facilities.
One of Britain's busiest inter-change stations,
Birmingham New Street also has 43 shops at
concourse level, and above it sits Grand
Central – a 450,000sq ft shopping complex
that includes one of the largest John Lewis
department stores in the UK.
Fläkt Woods provided a Jet Thrust System for
daily ventilation and fire safety, with over 100
fans fitted above the track at platform level. In
addition, 14 control panels and over 100
carbon dioxide (CO2) detectors were supplied,
in a contract worth £1.2 million.
The system provides life safety should a fire
occur on platform level, by maintaining clear
escape routes for occupants and a safe, secure
area for West Midlands Fire Service to access
and fight the fire. The system ensures that
smoke will not travel up the open stairs and
escalators to the concourse level above, which
allowed the architect to remove line-of-sight
blocking fire doors from the platform level.
In emergency mode the system also allows for
directional flow of smoke along the platform.
Under the extreme design conditions imposed
on this very busy public building this also
provides more tenable conditions for fire
fighters during the latter stages of a fire.
Fläkt Woods worked with client Mace/Network
Rail and key contractor NG Bailey to ensure the
most suitable solution was provided, and,
importantly, that the system could be installed
while the station remained open.
An initial study for the jet thrust system was
provided to confirm that the concept was
workable, and following this Fläkt Woods
provided a continuous design service as details
evolved on site. This included a presentation of
results to key stakeholders and increasing the
life safety requirement of the system, for
example by removing the fire doors and
changing the platform access layout. As part of
the continuous design process it was also
agreed that the fans would be painted black to
better match Birmingham New Street’s ceiling.
A factory acceptance test was provided before
installation of the fans to make sure the
customer was happy with their performance
and the low noise they generated.
The fans were installed during a ‘temporary’
phase, allowing both the existing and new
ventilation systems to coexist, meaning there
was no reduction in fire safety protection to
the platforms.
The new system offers a number of benefits
over the existing one. Whereas the existing
system operated at full speed 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, the new one operates on
demand. Therefore, when electric trains pass
through the station the system does not
respond, as there are no pollutants, and diesel
trains only activate the system as pollutant
levels start to build up in the occupied zone,
rather than in the void above the tracks. The
speed of activation is modified depending on
the levels of pollutant detected on a perplatform
basis, and the system is designed to
operate with any prevailing wind.
The fans can be maintained from platform side,
which means Network Rail doesn’t need to use
maintenance trains to access the units from
the track – as would have been required with
the original system.
Ross Barritt-Mehta, operational marketing
manager for fire safety at Fläkt Woods, said:
“Birmingham New Street station was rebuilt
while trains continued to run as normal for the
170,000 passengers a day who use it –
understandably making this a challenging
project.
“The existing cooker-hood style ventilation
system could not be removed before the new
system was installed, and any new extract
ductwork could not pass through the building
above as the existing system did, as the area
was to be opened up for the shopping mall
atrium.
“This project has given Fläkt Woods an
invaluable opportunity to prove its expertise in
designing, modelling and providing a highly
complex system.”
Fläkt Woods also provided jet thrust systems to
the short stay and drop and go car parks and
loading bay within the Birmingham New
Street site.
Fläkt Woods is a leading manufacturer of
ventilation and air movement products.
Visit www.flaktwoods.co.uk for
further information.
32 Refurb retrofit
magazine
Sep/Oct 2016 R1