Investment in transport infrastructure and Master Planning represents a major part of state spending both in the UK and Internationally. Often fire engineering input can be overlooked at this stage, although if incorporated in the early stages effectively this can lead to significant savings and avoid problems arising later in the design stages. Fire engineering elements that are considered within the master planning stage include;
Fire safety Infrastructure - This utilises the site wide infrastructure and can include combined wet riser and sprinkler tanks to serve large sections of the site rather than having large and costly installations per building. The strategic location of hydrants is also typically covered within the water infrastructure works. Often large sites will be provided with central remote security monitoring. Incorporating fire safety installations such as alarms into these stations can limit the burden on staff numbers and training within the site as central staff can monitor and manage a number of buildings. Incorporating these elements early and in full coordination with the design team can lead to robust and cost effective fire engineered solutions.
Building locations - By looking at the proposed use and adjacencies of buildings in coordination with the architects, Omega Fire can review the master plan and advise on likely areas were large areas of fire rated glazing or façades may be required. If identified in the early stages, road widths and adjacencies etc can be modified to limit this wherever possible.
Fire Service vehicle access - the required road widths and layouts are assessed to ensure that fire service vehicular access requirements for both current and future fire service appliances can be achieved. This can also be reviewed against likely assembly point locations to ensure that evacuation plans do not conflict with fire service access to the site. Depending on the size and remoteness of the site, response times from existing fire stations can be evaluated to asses if additional stations are required as part of the master planning requirements.
Master Planning