| |
|
Continued...
While the three main structures for Halley 5 were being built, the
BAS was already giving consideration to the design of a garage and servicing
facility for the vehicles at the station. On this occasion it was decided to
mount the building on skis so that it could be towed by bulldozers and relocated
on top of the snow once or twice a year, as necessary. The detailed design for
the building was carried out by Yorkshire-based consulting engineers Bennett
Associates, and it was built by VM Fabrications, also from Yorkshire.
The completed building, which came into use in 1993, is 16 metres
long, nine metres wide and six metres high and able to house vehicles weighing
up to 15 tonnes. It is fully self-contained and includes heating, ventilation,
water, electric power and compressed air supplies, provision for waste water and
oil and also various work-benches, storage and lifting equipment. An internal
temperature between +10°C and +15°C can be maintained despite external
temperatures as low as -55°C.
In order to allow the building to be moved from one position to
another on the ice shelf before it becomes ice-bound, the garage has been
mounted on a pair of skids, 19 metres long x 0.6 metres wide, with low friction
coatings.
The skids are fully integral with the structure to increase
mechanical strength, and the building overall is designed to be extremely rigid
so it retains its squareness despite being towing over uneven ground.
|
|
