 |
 |
 |
|
Brisbane Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane
By: Editor - Thursday, December 22, 2005
Source: strengthening.com
Princess Alexandra Hospital is an 850-bed tertiary teaching hospital servicing Brisbane's southern suburbs. It has nationally recognised expertise in spinal injury management, organ transplant and diagnostic radiography.
The new hospital structure was completed in March 1999. It is a major and distinctive part of the $300 million hospital re-development, and will replace an existing 50-year old, extensively modified, cavity brick and reinforced concrete.
A major design criteria that had to be met by the structure was flexibility for current and future services. The new structure had to achieve the fit-out demands of the new "high tech" hospital, and allow for future refit as new technology and equipment are developed. The hospital administration particularly wanted to avoid the expensive "cut and paste" renovation as experienced in the old structure.
The 80,000 sq m of suspended floors were constructed using post-tensioned concrete. The required criteria of flexibility for the extensive services fit-out and future modifications was achieved by providing:
- long spans with column free space;
- thin floor profile for service fit-out;
- line marking of all tendons on the top and bottom of the slabs;
- allowance for current and futura service penetrations adjacent to the columns.
The use of post tensioned floors also achieved:
- ease and speed of construction;
- crack-free floors;
- deflection control of the floors;
- cost effectiveness.
The provision for current and future service penetrations adjacent to the columns was achieved by located the post-tensioning tendons to give localised cable0free areas, and by designing the slab to have a reduced shear perimeter.
The structure follows a curvilinear shape forming a closed "Y" with a central atrium. It was designed as either banded slab or drop panel slab as required by the loading or geometry. Movement joints were provided where required through the use of split or double support columns. A total of 460 tonnes of post-tensioning was installed over a 13-month period with up to 2 hours per week.
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|