Challenges and solutions
The hangar needed to be erected over an existing 600mm thick concrete slab which was used as a jet engine test bed. We needed to factor the thickness of the slab into our design which meant the hangar sliding doors couldn't be ground run. To overcome this problem, we top hung the doors which is not often done on a building of this width. This required a very heavy front truss designed to take the loading. Additionally, we custom designed a continuous concealed ground guide system that could be bolted to the existing concrete.
The new hangar slab required a lot of thought as to how it would be integrated on top of the existing slab which contained 300mm of fall. The final solution was to pour a new slab on top of the old one and tie it in.
We also custom designed the outrigger system to work via a single outrigger with two supports. This ensured the outrigger would be strong enough to take two doors deep.
