London Gatwick Airport – Provision of e-Gates

Changing operational requirements in Pier 1 required the installation of e-Gate boarding checks at the entrance of each gate room, resulting in a change from an open to ‘closed gate room’ operation. The project brief was to provide an automated facial recognition and boarding gate process at each pier departure gate. The design was based on the Vision Box Self Boarding gate. A manual gate was also required to address any failure in the electronic process and to cater for boarding children and passengers with reduced mobility.

We completed the concept and detail design, which included; architectural, fire strategy, structural capacity check on the existing floor slab, lighting to avoid glare and disruption to the Facial Recognition equipment and 3D renders for presentation to the Executive Board. The design was submitted on time to allow the tender procedure to be completed as programmed. Our design team were then retained to carry out the Concept Guardian role during the phased installation period.

Solution

We worked closely with the airport’s technical leads during the initial survey and design period to develop an enhanced RIBA Stage 2 design. This enabled design solutions to be developed which mitigated any modification and fixing into the existing post tensioned floor slab. Our design team also explored alternative fixing methods with the e-gate manufacture to improve buildability.

Modification to the existing gate room portals was minimised by collaborating and agreeing with the Airline’s flexible check in desk and manual gate operation. This enabled a bespoke arrangement of e-gate/manual gate and desk arrangement to be designed for each gate room depending on the portal width thus minimising construction works on site.