Designing against a terrorist threat

There has been no escaping the elevated public awareness of the threat of terrorism in the UK. Incidents in London and at Glasgow Airport in 2007 have proved that the most recent form of terrorist attack, from suicide car or truck bombs, pose a high risk to the general public. There has thus been a greater need to improve protection against this terrorist tactic in crowded places such as shopping centres, large commercial and retail developments, sports arenas and major transport hubs. In addition the need to provide increased protection for Government buildings and landmark sites was also recognised.

This form of terrorist attack, using a vehicle borne improvised explosive device, has been used to cause significant damage and has lead to tragic loss of life in several parts of the world in recent years.  The terrorist threat to the UK is not receding and the threat level, as issued by HM Government, has recently been raised to ‘severe,’ meaning that a terrorist attack is ‘highly likely’.

Government has been highly active in recent years in making UK citizens aware of the terrorist threat through bodies such as National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NatCTSO) and the Centre for the Protection of Critical National Infrastructure. Both organisations work with Government security services to help reduce the impact of terrorism in the UK by protecting the country’s most vulnerable sites and assets and by enhancing our resilience to terrorist attack generally.

NatCTSO have provided guidance on how to protect crowded places from terrorist attack, publishing various guides intended to give practical protective security advice to those who are responsible for security of these types of sites.

When designing a new major development, or when the owner is in the process of a major upgrade to an existing site, the concept of ‘Security by Design’ needs to be embraced. Practical advice on how to design to protect from terrorist attack can be obtained from local Counter Terrorism Security Advisors and Architectural Liaison Officers, all contactable through local police offices, who can give a wide range of impartial advice on terrorist and crime related subjects to planners, developers, builders, landlords and estate/facility managers.  

The concept calls for security to be considered as part of the design process. This involves the use of blast resistant materials, where appropriate, and the embracing of appropriate building design methodologies and implementation to relevant site layouts and perimeter security schemes in order to reduce the consequences of an attack to as low as reasonably practical. This is achieved by providing resistance to explosive delivery devices, within reasonable cost restraints, to reduce the impact of an explosive blast, thus enabling the building to maintain its function and to protect its occupants and those close by.

This type of approach is mostly adopted in the case of new structures but the techniques can be equally applied to existing buildings and sites. The approach involves looking at three main areas; below ground, the building frame and façade, and lastly, the site perimeter.

Below ground typically houses a building’s car park, ‘goods in and out’ and many building services (electrical, water, telecommunications). An explosion here can leave the structure vulnerable to partial or complete collapse as well as impacting severely on building services. Protecting this part of the structure involves strengthening these basement floors with a blast resistant material, providing blast resistant protection for the rooms that house the key building services and strengthening escape routes for occupants in event of an explosion. Bi-Steel has been specified for UK and US Government protected buildings work and has successful withstood explosive tests ranging from 23kg of ‘in contact’ charges through to 2000kg ‘close proximity’ charges at 3m.
A building’s frame and façade can be given additional resilience through the installation of robust protection in the form of a high integrity structural building core that will help ensure against collapse in event of an explosion. Additionally, key building services and escape routes on ground and upper floors can be blast protected. The façade of the structure also needs to be protected against blast caused by a vehicle carrying an explosive device penetrating the ground floor of the building. This type of protection is required where protective street furniture such as bollards, planters or security walls cannot be used due to space restrictions at tight inner-city locations.

Site perimeters need to be secured against unauthorized vehicle entry and attack by installing a combination of heavy-duty gates, bollards, walls or barriers. For highly security-sensitive sites a high performance system offering robust protection is required.  
To protect site perimeters Corus has developed a range of permanent solutions to enable hostile vehicle mitigation schemes to be implemented at security sensitive locations using a composite Bi-Steel steel and concrete material. This is a high performance construction that offers high performance in demanding situations and is ideal for blast protection. These perimeter protection schemes involve the installation of bollards and wall systems that meet the performance standards of PAS 68:2007, the accepted UK classification system for vehicle security barriers and their supporting foundations when subjected to horizontal impact. Bi-Steel offers several benefits, one of which is the option of a unique shallow foundation bollard system. This is ideal for inner city locations where excavating traditional depth foundations would involve substantial disruption and may not be possible in any case due to the complexities of under-surface services such as gas, electricity and so on.

Rapid, temporary deployment barriers have also been produced, effective at stopping vehicles and protecting people and assets. A robust system, they can be quickly deployed with minimum disruption, typically on a short or medium term basis, providing an ideal solution for protecting people at major sports events, party political conferences, state visits and demonstrations/marches. Systems like these are now also being used to provide protection at locations where it is impractical to install a permanent solution as site layouts may change in the future.

Corus barriers, bollards and walls have already been used to protect the Palace of Westminster, New Scotland Yard, major UK airports, cash distribution centres, military bases and overseas embassies. Most recently Corus barriers were used to protect delegates to the G20 Summit in London.  

In the past the role of aesthetics might not have been as fully considered as it should have been in some of the perimeter protection schemes implemented. This has all changed, and in designing any new project care is now taken to ensure that the scheme is sensitive to its immediate environment, whilst at the same time being fit for purpose. And, particularly in the case of inner city schemes, the solution chosen should be uncomplicated and easy to install.

Corus has worked on several high profile projects where the aesthetics of the schemes have been paramount The systems have been carefully designed to blend sympathetically with the local environment and can be painted, clad in brick or stone, or cement rendered in keeping with the surrounding streetscape.
 
An excellent example of this is the new streetscape scheme being implemented around key Government buildings in Whitehall which incorporates discrete protection against terrorist car or truck bomb attack. This is being achieved through the installation of steel bollards and balustrade walls, elegantly designed to blend in with the traditional local architecture of this historic area of the capital.

Regrettably the threat from terrorist attack is going to be with us for some time and there is still work to be done to ensure that sensitive locations are fully protected from terrorist attack. Fortunately expert guidance is now available, and qualified help readily to hand, through Government departments and agencies, and from experienced commercial organizations such as Corus who have much knowledge of this specialist field.