BWB Consulting - Integrated Engineering and Environmental Consultants

Services:

• Structural Engineering
• Geotechnical
• Infrastructure Engineering
• Environmental
• Flood Risk and Drainage Engineering
• Civil Engineering

Sectors:

• Education
• Public Realm

The Performing Arts Centre formed the striking centrepiece of three new buildings constructed at the Hull College's Queens Gardens Campus in the centre of Hull in 2004. A new 20,000 sq ft library and 5,000 sq ft crhche completed the scheme.

BWB where initially retained as Civil/Structural Engineers for the project and where subsequently appointed to undertake and report on the geo-environmental condition of the site and commissioned to undertake a flood risk report for the development.

The development of the Performing Arts Centre was undertaken on a surface car park with public highways forming the boundaries of the site. The development utilised the full area of the car park and hence there was little scope to engineer levels and re-use materials generated from site clearance, foundations and drainage trenches.

This situation was exacerbated by the results of the chemical testing undertaken on the soil sample from the site. Elevated levels of hydrocarbons and heavy metals within the soil where deemed acceptable for the development scheme but would be classified as 'non-hazardous' material by the land fill tips and therefore would attract a high tipping charge.

The environmental and civil/structural divisions of BWB worked very closely together to establish how best to minimise the cart away of materials from the site.

The nature of the underlying soils meant that a piled solution to the building would be required. The piling operation had the potential to generate significant arisings that would need to be disposed to a tip off site. BWB therefore chose a system of Continuous Helical Displacement Piles that provided an economical foundation solution and zero foundation arisings.

This integrated approach saved the client vital time and ultimately significant sums of money in addressing this issue.