Demolition of Open Market, former Cinema and Access Bridges - Bankfield, Burnley, Lancashire

The project is for taking down and making good a former cinema block, open-market area, vehicular access bridge and a pedestrian access bridge, all constructed circa 1967. The principal, structural, building elements being in-situ, reinforced concrete beams, columns, floor slabs and roof slabs. Asbestos surveys, condition surveys and utility surveys have been carried-out. These will be made available for tendering companies together with the appropriate technical drawings. There are considerable amounts of amosite and chrysotile asbestos throughout the building structures in a number of material finishes. The former cinema block is built over a closed market with retail units, service area sub-station and pedestrian access directly below on the ground floor, all of which will remain open for the duration of the works. The block is adjacent and parallel to the adopted highway known as Bankfield. The block has a central, rectangular service core with a cinema unit to each side. Construction generally comprises, in-situ, reinforced concrete frame with brickwork and blockwork infill panels, plastered internally and with fluted, render finish externally. The in-situ, split-level reinforced concrete floors, approximately ten metres above external ground floor level, are interconnected by a series of in-situ, reinforced concrete staircases. The floors have been cast with a gradient appropriate for their use as a cinema. The roof to the cinema block is made up of a 'warm roof' on corrugated, galvanised steel sheeting supported off steel purlins on steel girder trusses at regular intervals supported off the concrete frame. The roof is approximately twenty metres above the adjacent ground level. The in-situ floor to the western cinema unit has been 'levelled-out' for storage purposes by over-boarding on a timber frame supported off the sloping concrete floor. The former open-market area at first floor level (approximately six metres above external ground level) is a fully enclosed area. Part of the area has the cinema block over. The remaining area is roofed over by a mixture of: original, waterproofed, in-situ, reinforced concrete slab, incorporating roof lights supported by in-situ, reinforced concrete columns at regular intervals; and, an 'atrium-type' glazed roof supported by a steel frame built off the in-situ, reinforced concrete floor slab. The whole of the open-market floor has been waterproofed with an asphalt finish with gradients falling to internal cast-iron rainwater pipes. The works are located adjacent to Bankfield, Burnley Town Centre, Ordnance Survey grid reference E384035 N432723 and the OS Above Ordnance Datum level at ground level is 110.700m. Further information on vehicular and pedestrian access is provided in Additional Text section.