Harris Your Place Q&A Series: Mark From Allied Access
A number of individuals and companies are responsible for the renovations currently taking place as part of the Harris Your Place project. This Q&A series sees us chat with those responsible about their involvement, and what their role is throughout the renovation project. Kicking off the series is Mark…
Tell us about your job role and the company you work for.
We’re working on The Harris Museum, and I’m the Foreman Scaffolder from Allied Access on this project. We are all about the access of the high-level work, getting into places, and trying to work out the problems relating to access for the other trades, as we provide the access for all the other trades working on the project.
Tell us a little bit more about the project you’re currently working on (HYP).
As it’s such a huge project, it had to be worked out alongside our engineers. We’ve had massive issues with loadings on the building, and because of that, we’ve had to go backwards and forwards quite a lot with our engineers to change things. It’s all about working out these problems and figuring out how the structure can take the load imposed by the scaffold on its own. This is our daily work, having to figure these problems out, and also sorting the access to the building, so people can do the jobs they need to do.
What kind of work might you do on a day-to-day basis?
Day to day, we are taking down and erecting scaffolds. It’s been quite a big project, it has taken us about 9 months to erect the scaffold all together, including everything that’s been inside. It has used a massive amount of kit and a huge amount of materials have been coming and going to site. We’re now in the process of taking parts down, and we’re trying to strip and clear areas as other trades are finished in the area.
Harris Your Place
Harris Your Place is a £16 million project set to restore and reimagine the Harris for 21st-century audiences as a cultural learning space. The aim of this project is to protect the building and the architecture for future generations whilst enhancing accessibility options and positioning the Harris as a community hub for Preston and Lancashire.
The capital project is more than simply preserving this much-loved building; Harris wants to ensure that it remains a vibrant heart of the community. A place where people want to spend their time.
