Skyscraper rises with Yorkshire iron
CAST-IRON manufacturer Hargreaves is helping to shape the skyline of modern Russia after winning a contract to work on Europe’s tallest building.
Halifax-based Hargreaves is supplying 96 tonnes of internal cast iron rainwater and drainage systems for the Federation Tower in Moscow.
The £305m, 87-storey building is 340m (448m including its spire) high, dwarfing Europe’s other skyscrapers, including Frankfurt’s 260m Commerzbank Tower and the 330m Eiffel Tower.
Phase one of the tower’s building work has been completed with the second phase expected to be completed in 2010.
Hargreaves, which has been established for more than 100 years, was contracted to supply around 5.2km of rainwater and drainage equipment from its lightweight cast iron system. Russian installers Armo Group are fitting the socketless soil and drainage systems, which feature a time-saving single steel coupling.
Sergei Glukharev, director of Halifax Russia, said: “The Halifax system was chosen for its quality, versatility and speed of installation. It has the major benefit of allowing pipeline installation to begin from any point and in any direction within a building and this provides major value with a building of this size and the single-coupling system reduces the risk of mistakes during installation.
“One of the major benefits of using a cast iron system such as Halifax is the low fire risk. By Russian law, any building higher than 75m must install a cast iron drainage system. The Halifax system also offers noise reduction characteristics, important since sewerage has to be channelled from the eighty-seventh floor to below-basement level.”
Federation Tower’s Russian developer, Mirax Group, said the complex, and a neighbouring 53-storey tower, have state-of-the art design features designed to protect them against a 9/11 style attack and withstand fire for 10 hours.
