Fullflow Complete Athlone Town Centre Redevelopment
Syphonic drainage specialists Fullflow has completed the design, manufacture and installation of a syphonic drainage system for the €150 million mixed use town centre development on an eight-acre site in the heart of Athlone, Ireland.
Fullflow has syphonically drained a total roof area of approximately 24,000m² for the new town centre development. The syphonic system has been designed to deal with a rainfall intensity of 75mm/hr and required a total of just 8 downpipes. Typically a Fullflow syphonic system uses up to 80% less downpipes, reduces installation time and ground works, offers greater design flexibility and can drain roofs up to 8 times faster than gravity system alternatives.
Murray O’Laoire Architects specified Fullflow syphonic drainage on this project for a variety of reasons. The site only had one discharge point for drainage to be taken to, which was in a pre-ordained location on the boundary of the site. On such large sites the distance that the water needs to be carried can be long so providing falls using conventional systems becomes very difficult, uneconomical, unsightly and cumbersome, this is where Fullflow’s syphonic system excels.
Brian McCarthy, Architect, on behalf of Murray O’Laoire commented on why Fullflow syphonic drainage was specified; “The main reasoning behind its use was that it would minimize the number of penetrations through roofs and slabs thus minimizing the risk of possible leaks and sound transmission”.
Brian McCarthy concluded; “To sum up I would say that symphonic drainage's main attraction is its ability to carry huge amounts of water long distances in horizontal pipe runs, thus maximizing headroom and saving valuable floor area. This has been of huge benefit on Athlone”.
The new large town centre development comprises of a 161-bedroom four-star hotel, a leisure and retail complex of 12 storeys and 163 apartments. The development is the largest town centre development outside of Dublin and Cork providing more than 28,000 m² of new retail space. It has provided Athlone and the surrounding area with great shopping facilities and has lifted the town up to fifth place in the Irish retail hierarchy.
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