Milburngate Durham - SFS provides passport for success in city centre development

voestalpine Metsec SFS has been used in the construction of a major new city centre redevelopment project in Durham.

Situated along the banks of the River Wear in the centre of Durham City, Milburngate is a 450,000 square-feet mixed-use redevelopment of a site previously occupied by HM Passport Office and National Savings & Investments.

The development features high quality restaurants, bars, a boutique cinema and contemporary offices together with a 92-bedroom Premier Inn hotel, 153 luxury built-to-rent apartments and a 600-space car park.

With views over the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Durham city centre, Milburngate provides the city with a stunning leisure, business and residential destination as well as creating hundreds of new employment opportunities.

Milburngate is being delivered in joint venture by Durham-based property business. Arlington Real Estate and the Richardson family, who together have already successfully delivered a number of important regeneration projects across the region.

Main contractors, Tolent specified voestalpine Metsec’s lightweight, cold-rolled steel framing system, SFS for the external walls together with composite flooring on the hotel and three apartment buildings. The structures range from four to nine storeys in height and are constructed using a primary hot rolled steel frame.

The decision to opt for voestalpine Metsec SFS was taken following discussions between Tolent, the project’s architects and voestalpine Metsec’s technical sales team, with voestalpine Metsec undertaking design at the start of the project and guaranteeing to meet the project’s planned timescale for delivery. SFS Installation was undertaken by local specialists, James Paul Services Limited.

voestalpine Metsec’s design included individual spacing of studs to suit the layout for the Stofix Brickslip heavy rainscreen cladding. Special consideration also needed to be given to fire resistance; with the primary steel frame being protected by intumescent paint, a 52mm gap was maintained between SFS studs and the frame’s steel columns, whilst SFS sections that were fixed directly to the frame were finished with a similar intumescent surface treatment.

voestalpine Metsec Sales Manager, Andy Brayford comments, “Milburngate is a perfect illustration of the versatility of SFS in its ability to be used with a variety of primary frame materials, in this case hot rolled steel.

With our in-house team of experts taking care of system design, the SFS elements were manufactured to the precise requirements of the project, assuring efficiency in installation and enabling the project’s construction schedules to be met.”