Client
Cyngor Gwynedd Council
Project Value
£8m
Services
- Structural Engineering
- Civil Engineering
- Geotechnical Engineering
Completion
2020
Caulmert Limited were appointed by Cyngor Gwynedd Council to provide Geotechnical, Civil and Structural Engineering Services for a new £8m Primary School at Penrhosgarnedd, Bangor, to accommodate 450 pupils including nursery.
The scheme involved the design and construction of a new two storey school together with the demolition of the existing school buildings and forming new MUGA, car parking and access road. The school has been designed to the standards of Building Bulletin 99 and to achieve BREEAM Excellent rating at design and Post-Construction stages. It has a two storey steel framed structure with composite first floors to the main wings whilst the main hall and kitchen areas has a single storey steel frame.
Key challenges on this project related to the ground conditions, high ground water levels and flood protection. A site investigation identified poor ground conditions which would have necessitated the use of piled or deep foundations, together with a high water table which is fed from an underlying aquifer by artesian pressure which would present significant buildability and temporary works issues during construction. An optioneering study resulted in the building being moved further north on the site where ground conditions were more favourable allowing shallow foundations to be adopted.
The Ysgol Y Garnedd project was the regional winner of the Constructing Excellence Award for Digital Construction in 2021. Caulmert where a proactive member of the team working collaboratively to deploy digital construction tools and techniques to deliver Building Information Modelling (BIM) to Level 2. A data rich asset model was provided to the client to aid the ongoing efficient operation of the building during its ‘in-use’ phase.
Gwynedd’s ambition for the new school was to support maximum involvement of the local supply chain and leave a lasting legacy for years to come by maximising collaborative working and digital construction BIM enabled processes. The whole team approach, instigated from RIBA stage 1 was considered by Constructing Excellence to be an exemplar application of digital technologies that supported the Construction 2025 agenda, making digitisation available to all by removing barriers.
