BSF News

What’s been going on

Foundations are now underway to the central wing of the new College building and demolition of the LRC/English Classrooms has been completed and the existing foundations are being removed to make way for the new building foundations and drainage.

To allow new steel work to be erected adjacent to the existing sports hall it is necessary to form concrete foundations at the perimeter of the existing building. To avoid the need to undermine the existing building to reach the required depth for these foundations, a cantilever beam has to be constructed out to a foundation remote from the sports hall to take the column connection.

This beam is reinforced with steel to carry the vertical loads from the new structure back into the ground. Concrete is capable of taking large compressive loads, but it is comparatively weak in taking tensile (stretching) forces. By incorporating steel bars, which have a high tensile strength, within the concrete the resulting composite material (steel and concrete combined) is able to take the all the loads imposed by the column and transfer these forces into the ground.

Within the College we are completing the installation of the metal gate to the main entrance. This will replace the timber doors that were installed as a temporary measure until the gate and new closing system were available.

The storage shed between the boiler house and the sub-station now has to be relocated to allow access for United Utilities to connect the new mains supply to the temporary classrooms we installed earlier in the year. This will allow us to remove the generator that supplies power at present. The Shed will be relocated this week and we aim to have permanent power in place before the start of GCSE examinations in May.

Works to upgrade the sports pitch drainage continue.

We have now erected a more permanent and visually attractive timber fence to segregate our works from the pitches that you are continuing to use. This should reduce the amount of maintenance required.

The drainage pipes across the pitches are installed using special machinery mounted on the back of tractors that dig out the trench for the drain, install a perforated plastic pipe and backfill the trench with free draining growing medium all in one continuous operation. The techniques used have all been developed in conjunction with Sports England.

It may be of interest that our Sports Pitch consultant is currently also working in South Africa, preparing the pitches there for the World Cup.

Coming soon

• New School Earthworks & Foundations

  Works will continue to the building foundations and drainage as the remaining demolition areas are cleared.

• Demolition of the Existing Hall

  All structure to be demolished in this phase should be down by this weekend, with the remaining slabs and foundations removed prior to the start of the GCSE examinations in May.

• Sports Pitch Upgrade

  Works will continue to upgrade the drainage to the two sports pitches now fenced off. Works should also commence to the two new outfalls to the Butterworth Brook in May.

• Erection of Structural Steelwork

  Structural Steel erection will start on Wednesday 5th May, following the construction of the new lift shaft so that the new steelwork can be installed around it. Traditionally lift shafts are built out of block work or concrete placed on site. We have opted to use a concrete shaft built under factory conditions which will be delivered in sections. Your new lift shaft will be travelling from Plymouth to site next week. This removes the requirement for scaffold and removes the risks associated with working at height and working in an outdoor environment. The Steelwork Contractor will use their crane to lift the pre-cast concrete sections into place on to the concrete base we have already cast on site.

Regards,
John England – Carillion Project Manager