KEY FACTS

CLIENT

Extra Care

YEAR COMPLETED

2010

BUILD TYPE

New Build

SERVICES PROVIDED

Civil Engineering
Environmental Consulting
Environmental Reporting
Geotechnical Engineering
Ground Gas and Vapour Investigation
Infrastructure Design
Site Assessment
Structural Engineering
Sustainable Urban Drainage (SuDS)
Remediation and Land Quality Management

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Erdington Retirement Village was a £30 million 260 unit developement for the over 60's provided on a 2.6 hectare brownfield site. As well as residential units, the development includes community facilities, a village centre with gym, restaurant, library, shops and an indoor bowling green plus care facilities for the elderly.

At the outset of our involvement a desk top site appraisal was undertaken which revealed the presence of a public sewer running through the site, the need for amendments to the public highway to facilitate the development, soil testing to satisfy planning conditions, and a level difference across the site.

BWB co-ordinated the sewer diversion design and sustainable urban drainage solutions to the storm drainage which involves attenuation which also doubles as rainwater harvesting.

Key Challenges

The access to the development was initially deemed to require alterations to the highway that would warrant a Section 278 Agreement with the Local Authority. Because of our early intervention BWB were able to develop the design and submit the relevant approval documents in sufficient time to prevent delays to the project.

The site is on a gentle slope but as the apartment buildings all have to be at constant levels at each floor level the building incorporated a retaining wall across the centre forming a full storey step across the site. BWB undertook design to optimise the cut and fill earthworks utilising computer modelling. One of the major criteria of the client, which needed to be incorporated in the analysis, was for the completed external hard standing areas to be devoid of steps to facilitate easy access for all residents. A design strategy was determined that used development plateaus linked by short shallow gradient ramps that yielded a material balance.

KEY CONTACTS