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BPC supplied for this new building in Bahrain's Diplomatic Area
The ISO9001-certified company offers a wide range of standard precast concrete products which includes hollowcore slabs, cladding panels, double-tee slabs as well as polished precast concrete which is offered in a range of colours.
During the year, BPC introduced the precast concrete staircase, an innovative product which offers great potential for speeding up construction. The BPC standard staircase comprises two flights with 1 to 18 steps, a landing and one top beam consisting of a hollowcore slab, in a grey fair-faced smooth finish. The company can also produce tailor-made staircases to suit the customers' design and requirements.
''BPC can now erect a staircase in a matter of hours and the system makes casting in-situ staircases, which obstruct access to buildings for weeks, a thing of the past,'' says Nielsen.
According to him, some of the benefits of the system include:
These staircases have already been introduced at the housing units in Zayed Town and some Ministry of Housing projects, he says.
Meanwhile, BPC has supplied and installed one of its most popular products, cladding panels to the 14-storey office tower near the Courts Complex in the Diplomatic area. These 200-mm-thick insulated sandwich cladding panels have a coloured concrete sandblasted and exposed aggregate finish and give a distinctive appearance to the development. Mannai Engineering is the main contractor for the BD2.2 million project which has an unusual design with the building tapering from the ninth to the 14th level. The building is nearly complete and is expected to be handed over shortly.
Another interesting project taking shape along Shaikh Isa Al Kabeer Avenue is the American Mission Hospital extension. BPC has supplied curved cladding panels and hollowcore slabs to the first section of the development which sits on a site adjacent to the existing facility. The same type of components will be provided for the building across the road which will be connected to the hospital via an overhead footbridge.
BPC has played a key role in the timely completion of the Junior school extension of the Sacred Heart School in Isa Town, a fast-track project. The company provided the superstructure of the extension which comprises load-bearing sandwich panels and hollowcore slabs. The erection work was completed within the school summer vacation.
Extensive use of precast load-bearing sandwich panels and hollowcore slabs has been made in the construction of Aluminium Bahrain's (Alba) research and development centre which was opened during November.
Other projects to which BPC supplied cladding panels are the two-storey office building for Almoayyed in Sehla and the new entrance to the existing Toyota showroom in Sitra.
BPC also supplied and erected the bridge deck of the pedestrian bridge near the Marina Club, which was opened last year (1999).