COM1271 - Monitoring of Stone Pinnacles

Tender description

The requirement is to appoint a specialist surveyor to undertake a detailed survey of the stone pinnacles at The Palace of Westminster over a period of time to be agreed The survey provides a non-intrusive and less costly remedy to assess the condition and risk posed by the stone pinnacles. The long term project aim is mitigating and controlling the risk of the stone pinnacles and consequently protecting the fabric of the grade I listed Palace of Westminster and ensuring the safety of those on the Parliamentary Estate and surrounding areas. There are 707 pinnacles on the palace and individually testing all of these would be incredibly time consuming and expensive. Surveys of the stone pinnacles on the Palace of Westminster were undertaken in 1999, 2007 and 2009. The results were analysed in order to establish a trend of movement. The surveys need to be carried out regularly to ensure monitoring of the pinnacles movement over a long period of time to determine which stone pinnacle are at risk of failing or exhibit too much movement. The main objectives of the project are to: • Monitor the movement of the pinnacles to determine which ones are in need of repair (stiffening). • Produce a detailed and robust report showing the findings of the detailed surveys, recommendations for require urgent repair or are ‘at risk’. • The report should categorize the stone pinnacles in to the following groups: Urgent (do it now), high risk (1-2 years), medium risk (2-5 years) and low risk (5+ years). • Provide a graphical representation to demonstrate movement and distortion and to alert the Project Leader, the Principle Architect and the Structural Engineering Consultant immediately of any stone pinnacles that pose an immediate health and safety risk.