Elta Fans is currently working on projects to supply ventilation fans to two very different tunnels under construction in London and southern England. The first is a temporary ventilation unit for the Hindhead bypass tunnel, currently being constructed by Balfour Beatty. The 1.4m diameter contra-rotating fans (illustrated) were designed and built at Elta’s Fareham facility and when installed will remove machinery fume and dust. Because of the site’s close proximity to residential housing, the units are constructed with heavy attenuators and contained within acoustically lagged housings.
The second project concerns the supply of ventilation units to EDF Energy and National Grid for three tunnels housing power cables beneath the City of London. The fans have a dual role: to help dissipate the natural heat produced by these cables and to extract smoke in the event of fire. Elta recently extended its EC-Certification for smoke related fan units with BSI, resulting in one of the largest certified standard products ranges within Europe. Again, acoustic lagging was deemed an important design feature for the EDF/NG units.