News
Key Worker Accommodation Contract Secured
Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge has awarded a contract to construct a £28 million key worker housing development for the hospital site to main contractor, SDC Construction.
Precast Concrete Structures has been awarded the contract to design supply and erect the four six-storey buildings which will provide 100 apartments and a total of 292 beds for hospital staff.
The original scheme was based on an insitu concrete design. PCS worked with the Design Team to change the structure to a precast solution to gain considerable programme and finishing benefits.
The PCS design utilises twin wall panels which provide rapid erection times and reduced costs for follow-on trades as they are of sufficiently high quality to accept direct decoration without the need for plastering or dry lining.
The twin wall panels, which are half the weight of solid concrete panel sections, are delivered to site in carefully planned and managed just-in-time process ready to be craned into position. After erection the panels are filled with concrete, which provides the building with its structural integrity.
External brick clad pre-cast concrete panels are used to the balcony edges to maintain the brickwork aesthetic to the external facade treatment.
The development is a mix of en-suite rooms and flats which will have a range of features including brie soleil and balconies, in addition to bicycle storage areas, which is an essential requirement for a development in a city where bicycles are the principal mode of transport.
Erection will commence on site mid-April 2009 with completion October 2009.
PCS Completes MOD Barrack Blocks
As part of the MOD’s wider Project MoDEL works at RAF Northolt, Precast Concrete Structures Ltd have successfully completed the erection of 2 x junior ranks, ‘barrack blocks’ for Norwest Holst Ltd. The project, completed to programme and budget, provides single living accommodation for some 182 airmen and airwomen at this prestigious West London unit.
The development consists of two interlocking, ‘T’ shaped, 3 storey blocks with en-suite accommodation and communal lounge areas on each floor.
The high quality PCS wall panels and floor slabs were manufactured to permit direct decoration, thereby removing the need for following wet trades.
Although the project sits outside the realms of the MOD’s Project SLAM (Single Living Accommodation Modernisation) it has been erected to similar standards and dimensions and has the potential to set the standard for future accommodation requirements at RAF Northolt.
Precast Concrete Structures Ltd have an excellent appreciation of the MOD’s and Defence Estates accommodation needs and with security cleared operatives, are well placed to carry out similar accommodation work across the MOD Estate in the future.
The Hub Achieves Completion
One of the most prominent mixed use development sites in Manchester City Centre is the work of Property Developers, Argent Group, whose scheme is centered around a privately managed piazza, at Piccadilly Place adjacent to Manchester’s Piccadilly Station.
There are 5 buildings in the scheme, 3 office buildings, an hotel and an apartment block which has been named ‘The Hub’.
The Hub is a 10 storey development of 167 apartments, designed by Glenn Howells Architects and constructed by Carillion to the highest specification.
The scheme comprises a 10 storey pre-cast concrete frame, constructed off an insitu concrete transfer frame at first floor level, to provide a number of commercial units at ground floor.
Pre-cast concrete walls are predominantly twin walls with composite panels in architectural concrete for the external elevations.
The design includes some precast columns and beams along with 250mm thick pre-stressed hollow core floors to provide a complete precast solution.
PCS have designed supplied and erected all the precast elements on the project.
As is typical for Precast Structures designs, the wall panels are manufactured in high quality finished concrete which is ready for direct decoration, removing the need for follow-on wet trades.
The apartments, ranging from studios through to 3 bedrooms, all have floor to ceiling glazing which open out onto Juliet balconies or external seating areas.
Precast Project wins RIBA Sterling Award
The Accordia Living development by Countrywide Properties in Cambridge has been awarded the RIBA Stirling Prize for 2008, the UK’s most prestigious architectural award.
Accordia is a modern living housing scheme designed by 3 architectural practices, Feilden Clegg Bradley, Maccreanor Lavington and Alison Brooks Architects and has the distinction of becoming the first residential scheme to receive this award.
The development took place on a brown field site formerly occupied by government offices and prefabricated World War 2 buildings. The prefabrication concept was carried over to the re-development of the site with many components being manufactured off site and contributing to the rapid erection programme which was necessary to achieve the site programme.
The scheme, which incorporates a hybrid combination of precast concrete walls, structural steel and floors supplied and erected by Precast Concrete Structures Ltd, significantly out performs the 2002 Building Regulations due to attention to detailing and potential air leakage locations, whilst the concrete makes a considerable contribution to the thermal mass of the buildings, which achieved a ‘Very Good’ BREEAM rating.
This highly prized award is not the first to be awarded to the development which has already earned a number of other awards including, 2007 Civic Trust Commendation Award for East Anglia, in addition to achieving Housing Design Overall winner and Medium Housebuilder winner in 2006.
Student Accommodation Completed 3 months Early
Brunel University planned to add nearly 1400 student rooms to their Uxbridge campus to cater for growing student numbers.
Following demolition of the disused 1960’s residential buildings on the site Norwest Holst commenced their Design & Build contract to provide the 17 No blocks each 5 stories high.
Precast Concrete Structures Ltd (PCS) worked with Norwest Holst, their contract Architects, Stride Treglown and Structural Engineers, Adams Kara Taylor to develop a hybrid design solution providing the best of the benefits available through combining precast concrete wall and floor units and lightweight steel external wall cassettes to produce a scheme which would optimise programme and costs.
PCS used their expertise and experience to plan just in time deliveries of all the precast and steel materials to maintain the rapid erection programme developed for the project.
The PCS solution utilised twin wall panels. These are basically hollow precast wall panels with a quality finish on both sides which is ready to accept internal decoration without the need for any other trades. In addition the wall panels, which are filled with concrete after erection to form a full structural cross-wall system, are half the weight of a traditional solid wall slab and provide excellent resistant to impact damage in occupation of the building. Additionally the twin wall panels offer good acoustic performance and add to the thermal mass of the building.
The floors were formed from a combination of composite precast RC slabs which were ready for direct decoration and pre-stressed composite slabs for spanning up to 7m. Services were incorporated within the floor slabs during installation.
The PCS erection programme, which included the placing of the bathroom pods and sheathing the light steel framing, commenced in March 2007 and was completed by Christmas the same year some 3 months ahead of schedule.
Interestingly if the study bedrooms were laid end to end they would stretch 5.4km !
