Yesterday The Glasgow School of Art, working with its team of structural experts, had an opportunity to continue its assessment of the structural integrity of the Mackintosh Building.
The GSA’s new specialist site contractor, Reigart, has now brought large mobile cranes on site to allow detailed close-up visual assessment of damage to the building. All of this information is being shared with the Glasgow City Council Building Control team to establish an effective stabilisation strategy that ensures public safety.
The detailed visual assessment shows that damage to the Mackintosh Building is significantly greater than had initially been anticipated from ground visual assessment and the data from the drone and scanning footage which were undertaken last week.
The Glasgow School of Art’s site contractor Reigart, together with its structural engineers, David Narro Associates, are using all this information to develop a plan of works to achieve structural stability of the building. This will be agreed with Historic Environment Scotland (HES) and Glasgow City Council (GCC) Building Control. All parties are working in close collaboration to allow plans to be developed and agreed as quickly as possible.
The areas of significant concern are the east elevation, the west elevation and sections of the south elevation. The plan of works will involve Reigart undertaking extensive down takings and potential structural bracing.
Due to the condition of the Mackintosh Building this work will be undertaken in a highly controlled way to minimise any potential risk of failure and be sufficient to achieve structural stability of the Mackintosh Building.
The aim of the GSA and GCC will be to return normal access for residents and businesses as soon as possible.
When the plan of works has been agreed with HES and GCC Building Control, we’ll let people know.
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For further information contact:
Lesley Booth
07799414474