Heathrow Terminal 5 building

The Heathrow Terminal 5 building is currently the largest free-standing building in the United Kingdom. The building cost £4bn and took 19 years to build from initial design to opening. The building's lead architect were from the Richard Rogers Partnership. Terminal 5 is currently used as a global hub by British Airways.

Design

The Terminal 5 building is on a 260-hectare site located between Heathrow's two runways.

The entire Terminal 5 complex actually consists of 16 major projects and 147 sub-projects. These projects include three buildings and a railway station. Furthermore, in order for these buildings to be constructed, a new control tower had to be built. According to lead architect Mike Davis, construction of these various facilities had to satisfy the needs of 43 different groups.

Construction

During construction 7,500 workers were employed on the site. In 2005, Terminal 5 was the largest construction project in Europe.Fact|date=March 2008

Buildings

Terminal 5 is made up of three satellite buildings referred to as T5A, T5B, and T5C.

T5A structure

Standing at convert|40|m tall, T5A is the largest building in the Terminal 5 complex and is also the biggest free standing building in the UK. It is covered by a single expanse of roof, the size of five football fields, each section of which weighs 2,200 tons. This roof could not have been lifted with conventional cranes because it would have penetrated the airport's radar field. Therefore, the roof was assembled on the ground using smaller cranes, then lifted into place by eight custom-built towers, each fitted with two hydraulic jacks to pull the roof up. Lifting the roof began on 6 April, 2004, and was completed almost a year later.

T5A interior layout and systems

T5A contains a check in hall, a departure lounge with retail stores and other passenger services, and a baggage retrieval hall. T5A also contains the bulk of the terminal's baggage handling system. This baggage handling system is the largest in the world with convert|8|km of high-speed track and convert|18|km of regular conveyor belts. It is designed to handle 12,000 bags per hour, and also has an innovative “early bag store” which can temporarily store up to 4,000 bags.

Departing passengers enter the departures level on the 3rd floor after taking one of the lifts or escalators from the interchange plaza. Upon entering the departures concourse, passengers see views across Heathrow and the surrounding area, and are in a space that is unobstructed to the rising roof above. After check-in and security screening, the airside departure lounge also provides views across the airport, its runways and beyond.

Satellite buildings

T5B is the first satellite building to be built. T5C is the second satellite building, scheduled to be operational in May 2010.

Light rail system

Transport between the business car park and the main building is provided by a driver-less light rail system designed by Advanced Transport Systems. This system will eventually transport passengers around the perimeter fence to terminals 1,2 and 3. Terminal 5 also has a rapid transit system to transport passengers between T5a and T5b, and when it opens, T5c.

Railway stations

The Terminal 5 building is served by a shared railway station.

New control tower

Terminal 5's design height is so tall that it would have blocked runway views from Heathrow Airport's control tower. Therefore, before construction began on the terminal building, a new taller control tower was built off-site then manoeuvred into position at the centre of the airport grounds. This newer control tower weighs nearly 1000 tons and is 85 metres tall.

Teething troubles

Shortly after opening, there were problems at Terminal 5, particularly with baggage handling. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jul/10/britishairwaysbusiness.heathrow The Guardian]

British Airways has now launched an advertising campaign to assure the public that things are working normally now. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/aug/04/britishairwaysbusiness.theairlineindustry The Guardian]

External links

* [http://www.terminal5.ba.com/ British Airways site about T5]
* [http://www.heathrowairport.com/portal/page/Heathrow%5EGeneral%5EAirport+information%5ETerminal+5/fe1a8d5b7bcf3110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____/448c6a4c7f1b0010VgnVCM200000357e120a____/ BAA site about T5]
* [http://www.richardrogers.co.uk/render.aspx?siteID=1&navIDs=1,4,24,56,395 Richard Rogers Partnership site about T5]
* [http://www.ingenia.org.uk/ingenia/articles.aspx?Index=484 The logistical challenge of engineering T5, "Ingenia" magazine, March 2008]