Project Background
Construction began on the new 100,000 sq.m. Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport in January 2008 and the building was officially opened in November 2010. The design brief was to construct a state-of-the-art new terminus as the existing terminal was deemed to be incapable of dealing with the increase in passenger numbers and had severe congestion issues.
Terminal 2 is a 75,000 sq.m. (810,000 sq.ft.) terminal and pier of 25,000 sq.m. (pier E) which provides 19 air bridges for aircraft and is capable of handling 15 million passengers annually, thereby allowing the airport to handle 35 million passengers a year. The project was designed by Pascal and Watson Architects and the total cost of the project was €600 million. This innovative project was designed fundamentally to improve passenger experience.
The Challenge
Due to the scale and size of the project, there were 22 different types of partitions with differing acoustic, fire and thermal resistance performance criteria. A combined total of 530,000 sq.m. of Gyproc plasterboard was used in the installation of partitions, ceilings and steel encasements, making it at the time of construction, the largest project ever undertaken in Ireland. There were severe challenges in terms of the number of service ducts and also the requirement to provide high levels of fire resistance and protection to the structure and protection to the Terminal inhabitants.
The Approach
High levels of on-site technical support were provided by Gyproc and there was also a large amount of bespoke detailing required to ensure that the relevant project performance criteria in terms of acoustics and fire were met. Close co-ordination between the Gyproc Technical Specification team and the project stakeholders ensured that the various ceiling, partition, and lining systems were installed to a very high standard both in terms of workmanship and quality of the aesthetics. Many of the Gypframe CasoLine MF Ceiling installations were required to provide up to two hours of fire resistance using Glasroc F FireCase boards. There were also many detailed and decorative bulk-heads incorporating lighting features throughout the Terminal building.
Gyproc ShaftWall was used specifically in the service risers and elevator shafts to provide the required fire resistance where full access was restricted. The primary steel sections were suitably fire protected encased in either Gyproc FireLine or Glasroc F FireCase.The necessity to provide optimum levels of security required bespoke detailing. Steel security mesh was incorporated in the partition build-ups in areas separating the air-side from land-side.