Reading Climbing Centre, Reading

Thomasons were appointed to provide structural engineering consultancy services for the development of a new indoor climbing centre at Reading. The new centre was housed within an existing 1100m2 warehouse of steelwork truss and column construction, with a height of 11m to eaves.

The project included new climbing walls, a bouldering section and associated facilities including a shop, restaurant, changing rooms, offices etc. A new mezzanine floor was constructed using a steelwork frame with an insitu reinforced concrete and metal deck composite floor slab.

Thomasons carried out a load assessment on the existing superstructure to ensure that the existing steelwork members could safely carry the additional loads from the climbing walls. A design appraisal for the climbing wall support structure was also carried out and Thomasons provided the design for the mezzanine floor and an assessment of the ground floor slab capacity to carry the load from the new mezzanine columns.