Arkwright House

LOCATION: MANCHESTER, UK

Arkwright House is one of central Manchester’s historic landmarks and is Grade II listed due to its use as Winston Churchill’s offices during the World War II. C-Probe were involved in an unique £5 million repair project which was completed in 1998 after a 24-month restoration period – one of the main reasons being due to cracked concrete and structural corrosion.

C-Probe designed and supplied a low carbon repair and resilience strategy, with the inclusion of cathodic protection and structural health monitoring to protect the steel frame from further damage at a capital cost of around £350k. The installed systems have been managed by C-Probe since installation and have performed very successfully to date at an online operational and reporting cost of £165k – now reaching its 25th historic restoration anniversary in 2023.

Product / System Used

Discrete anode ICCP system partnered with CP20 and CP200 embedded sensors, AchillesICP network management system and AiMS.

Project Details

The worst problems seemed to be focused on the top three (of seven) floors, making traditional repair unavoidable. To that end, Level 1-5 of the structure received ICCP without traditional repairs, whilst ICCP was added to the reconstruction of Levels 6 and 7. The ground level to 1st level spandrel beam was in good condition and received only early detection corrosion rate monitoring. Traditional repair was achieved by removing the external cladding, removing the corrosion products by the needle-gun method, and treating the steelwork with a formulated coating finish for future protection prior to re-establishing the façade at the upper levels.

The lower levels did not require this invasive traditional repair opting for drilling in of discrete anodes in low diameter holes before interconnecting with MMO titanium wire within the bed joints.

The ICCP installation saw 3,700 anodes drilled in externally and controlled in 24 zones (4 per building level) with power, control and monitoring electronics networked together. From 1998 to now, the structural performance is managed using remote access to data and control with internet access to reporting. Corrosion rate data are collected and retained on the AiMS remote server and accessed on demand, as well as issued to the owner on an annual basis through the management company.

Project Impact

Arkwright House was the first building in the world with brick and stone to receive ICCP as part of a restoration scheme for the whole building, whilst demonstrating 25-year performance data and fulfilling warranty requirements. The aesthetics of the building were fully protected during the restoration scheme.

The performance data and archived records have been used twice for the sale and purchase of the property over the 25 years operation.

Awards

ICRI’s 2008 Project of the Year (Arkwright House 10 Years On, Manchester, UK)

Read our Hi-Tech Heritage Article (Corrosion Engineering International)

Get in touch with any questions, queries or potential projects.