The Fulcrum

At 100 Liverpool Street. This is a British Land site (part of the Broadgate Campus development) and Sir Robert McAlpine are the main contractors. We were lucky enough to have a site tour after a morning meeting. This is The Fulcrum, a 200-tonne steel sculpture that sits at the mouth of the entrance. This has had to be lowered by 1.5m as part of a complicated plan for the site.  

To do this, the team put a fulcrum underneath the mouth of the entrance, which held the steel structure in place. The ground was lowered around the steel structure while the fulcrum holds it in place. Strand jacks were attached to the existing beams of the building and the structure lowered  overnight when the rest of the pathway had been successfully levelled out. A big (and complicated) job. look at https://www.broadgate.co.uk/development-news-at-broadgate for more info. 

My extra is from Penny (love the tree roots) who is still in Borneo it would seem!