BSF News

What’s been going on

Steelwork is now complete to the first wing of the new building. Next week we will be placing the deck sheets to this wing to form the soffit to the 1st and 2nd floor slabs.

To create the curved lines at the perimeter of the building the steel beams have been sent to a specialist contractor to curve the steel by repeatedly rolling them through computer controlled rollers to produce the required profiles. The company, based in Tipton near Birmingham, are one of only two such facilities in this country. They have been in the business of curving steel sections for 50 years and have the largest facility in the UK. Locally they curved the tubular beams which support the Merchants Bridge as part of the Castlefield Redevelopment in Manchester.

The fill to the area occupied by Section 2 of the new building which includes the new LRC and dance/drama auditoria has now been completed. All the foundations to the newbuilding will be complete by next week, ready for our steel work contractor to return and complete steel erection.

The photograph shows the temporary retaining wall described in last week’s bulletin to allow fill material to be placed close to the existing IT classrooms.

As you can see from the completed foundations to the Dance/Drama auditoria (adjacent to the existing corridor behind the old hall) the new building will be very close to the existing College building at this point.

Rest assured we will put in place control measures to ensure that there is no risk or disruption to the College from the ongoing construction works in this area. The steel erection here will only take one week and, as there are no raised floor slabs in this part of the new building, so there will be none of the noise associated with laying deck sheets. The erection of the steel work is a relatively quite operation with the only intrusive noise coming from the mechanical guns used to tighten the bolts. The use of this tool has been monitored previously and will be carefully controlled, using the

information being provided by the College management on lesson and examination timings, to ensure that the College is not disrupted.

The drainage works to the new building are now underway and will continue until the summer holidays. As the drains are all shallow the amount of earth that is required to be moved is small and the noise associated with digging and filling the trenches is low. The first drains that have been constructed are the foul drains picking up the toilets in the existing music/drama classrooms and the sports hall. Now that these drains have been diverted the last of the foundations in this area can be built.

Elsewhere we have re-seeded the pitch drainage works; we just need a little rain to help the new grass establish prior to returning to complete these pitches.

The CCTV site security system is now in place.

In the photo you can see the “black” lights which provide illumination for the night vision cameras without producing any light pollution to our neighbours’ homes.

The system also includes speakers, so that the guards at the monitor station can communicate directly with any trespassers.

Coming soon

• Foundations & Drainage

  Works will continue to complete the remaining building foundations and drainage for the rest of the month.

• Erection of Structural Steelwork

  Structural Steel erection will continue until the end of June. All the steelwork to be erected close to the sports hall will be in position by the return to College after half term. Only the completion of the last section closest to our site cabins will remain.

• Metal decking to the upper floor slabs.

  All of Section 1 will be completed by the return to College after half term. The decking to Section 3 – the Science, Humanities and Design & Technology Classrooms, will start at the end of June after the completion of examinations.

• Concrete to the upper floor slabs.

  Over half term Section 1 Slabs will be prepared and at least one slab poured. We will then plan in a second pour to avoid examinations to complete this work. Section 3 slabs will follow completion of the metal decking.

Regards,
John England – Carillion Project Manager