This three storey Employment Skills Centre at Strode College, Somerset houses a computer centre, training rooms, lecture rooms, offices and a common room, and is designed to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating.
Its structural design presented some very specific challenges. It was located over a foul water pumping station which needed to remain in continuous use throughout construction. The pumping station services the college, a local swimming pool and a school.
The whole site was both congested and in continual use. Our design therefore took extreme care to ensure the 6m deep pile foundations were constructed with minimal impact to the nearby pumping station and wet well.
Cordek heave protection board was chosen to mitigate any ground movement occurring due to the removal of trees from the clay soil. Flood attenuation also features on this poorly drained site, whilst drainage runs were been diverted and upgraded to prepare for the future adoption of the pumping station by Wessex Water.
