A world-first tie configuration for emergency cladding remediation on a 72-metre City of London tower.
The Challenge
A 72-metre commercial tower in the heart of the City of London — a live building, uninterrupted public realm below, adjacent occupiers on all sides.
The remediation programme demanded full scaffold access across all four elevations simultaneously, in one of London’s highest-footfall environments where the surrounding city remained open, occupied and in full operation throughout.
Each elevation presented its own distinct challenge. The East elevation required a full protection gantry, HAKI staircase, and a two-tonne goods hoist serving both MR’s operatives and the client’s cladding teams. The North elevation needed two protection gantries at varying heights to protect pedestrians from the building’s maintenance cradle descending from roof level, with significant propping works to support a public walkway running from ground to high level — requiring drill-and-fix anchor points and load transfer through the lower-level building structure. The West elevation addressed the main entrance environment, with a low-level protection deck and a rear goods hoist serving the cladding logistics programme.
Then came the South.
Faced with a tight working envelope and a façade that could not be approached conventionally, the south elevation required a cantilevered steel beam arrangement punching out from beneath the building and working upward — involving Apollo beams, 450 sections, and hundreds of steel beams, craned in from the street using a high-reach loader in a time-intensive but uncompromising operation.
At the heart of every elevation was a constraint that defined the entire project: the ties could not penetrate the concrete core of the building and could only enter the structural steel by six millimetres. On a 72-metre structure in a City of London wind environment, across approximately 19 lifts, that margin determined everything.
Our Solution
Working in close collaboration with Agile Scaffold Design, we developed a quadruple tie system with up to 16 bolts per location, each individually pull tested, proportionally distributed across the structure to manage the loads that six-millimetre penetration depth could not handle through conventional means. Where a standard tie takes five minutes to install, each tie at Aldermanbury took 45 minutes. Every bolt, every location, every millimetre was accounted for. This tie configuration has no known precedent in the scaffolding industry.
The project was delivered in two phases. Phase One covered the East and North elevations, allowing cladding remediation to begin while Phase Two – the West and South – was developed. Party wall challenges at both the south-east and south-west corners required careful sequencing, with those sections completed last to ensure all agreements were in place before work commenced.
All operatives on site were advanced scaffolders. Multiple black-hat supervisors were embedded throughout the programme to ensure the structure was built to Agile’s design precisely not approximately. Senior Contracts Manager James Davies led the project on site, with Black Hat Supervisor Josh Smith overseeing up to 16 operatives daily, maintaining safety standards and workforce consistency throughout.
Manual handling risk was addressed through multiple mechanical hoists across all elevations and the deployment of a Liftbot, a robotic lifting aide that reduced physical strain on operatives and minimised the risk of falling materials. Vehicle movements were reduced through HIAB deliveries of large material quantities, avoiding daily lorry movements in a constrained City environment. Weekend working and quieter equipment reduced noise impact to surrounding residents and occupiers.
Cantilevered scaffolding from basement level, developed in close coordination with Agile and Structura, maintained public access and avoided neighbouring property constraints throughout.
The Outcome
The project was delivered to programme across both phases, supporting the client’s cladding remediation schedule without interruption. Thousands of daily pedestrians moved safely through the site throughout. No impact to neighbouring occupiers. No programme delays.
The City of London Gold Award recognised the project as setting a new standard in scaffold engineering within a live urban environment. The tie configuration developed for 5 Aldermanbury Square has not been used in this arrangement before – anywhere. It is the only one of its kind.
The quality of delivery and the strength of relationships built throughout led directly to subsequent project awards from the client – the clearest measure of programme satisfaction and trust.
Key Figures
72-metre tower · 4 elevations · £3 million contract value · World-first tie configuration · 16 bolts per tie location · 6mm maximum penetration depth · All ties individually pull tested · 45 minutes per tie installation · Approximately 19 lifts · 2-tonne goods hoists across multiple elevations · Liftbot robotic lifting aide deployed · Advanced scaffolders throughout · Multiple black-hat supervisors on site · Delivered in 2 phases · City of London Gold Award