de Ferrers Sports Hall Build Thursday, 24th January 2008
Huge precast concrete wall panels have been developed to provide structural support for a new school sports hall in Staffordshire
Pupils and teachers at a secondary school in Burton on Trent have seen their new sports hall take shape in record time. Eight metre high precast concrete wall panels have been lifted into place at the de Ferrers technology college, saving two months from the construction programme.
Use of precast concrete panels has removed the need to install a structural steel frame. Instead, the concrete panels themselves are designed to provide structural support and carry the roof.
Eighty five concrete panels, each weighing nine tonnes and measuring 2m across, were lifted into place using a 100t crane to form the perimeter of the 33m x 18m sports hall and adjacent changing rooms, classrooms and fitness centre. Panels have been secured to reinforced strip foundations using 32 steel anchors.
Installation of the precast panels was carried out by design and build contractor Construction Direct during September, following their manufacture by precast concrete and ground engineering specialist Roger Bullivant Ltd (RBL). The construction contract is valued at ?Ǭ£1.5M.
Construction Direct's contracts manager Kevin Hubball says building a sports hall using precast concrete panels is an unusual, but time saving alternative to erecting a steel frame. "t took 15 days for us to install the concrete wall panels around the perimeter of the building and a further five days to erect a first floor section to form the classrooms and a fitness room," he says. "We saved at least two months on the build by doing away with use of a steel frame and cladding, and the need to lay brickwork and blockwork.
"Many of my friends in the industry are amazed when I tell them how we are building this sports hall," he adds. "To my knowledge, this is the first school sports hall in the UK to be built using eight metre high precast concrete panels. The panels are proven in the construction of single storey buildings and we are simply using the technique for a new application - all be it on a much larger scale."
Each precast panel specified for the de Ferrers sports hall is constructed in a 'sandwich' fashion. An inner skin of concrete, 170mm thick, is separated from a 65mm outer skin of concrete by an insulation layer, measuring 104mm thick.
The eight metre high panels were produced at the manufacturing headquarters of RBL, which has a concrete products facility near Burton on Trent. Design manager Ian Lem says that specifying concrete panels produced off site in a factory offers numerous benefits for clients. "The panels are manufactured in a controlled environment and we do not have to wait for a break in the weather to cast concrete. Contractors who specify these panels also do not have to rely on a local labour supply of brick layers."
Fleets of lorries delivered completed pairs of precast panels to the sports hall site, where they were lifted up and stacked in a vertical rack ready to be installed at a rate of around six a day. Lowering of each panel into place was followed by the installation of temporary support props inside the building. Placing of the building's steel roof this autumn, which is to be bolted to the walls, will make the structure rigid.
Precast panels have also been installed to form both a lift shaft beside the sports hall and internal walls for adjacent changing rooms and offices on the first floor. This first floor has been formed using 75mm thick precast panels, which are to be finished with an in situ pour of concrete over reinforcement to bring the floor thickness up to 250mm.
Construction Direct's Kevin Hubball adds that use of precast panels on site has reduced the quantity of scaffolding, cut the manual handling of construction materials and reduced the volume of waste generated. It has also eliminated the opportunity for discrepancies when laying blockwork on such a large structure.
RBL Concrete Products' national sales manager Trevor Howells says the precast concrete market has been growing at a phenomenal rate in recent years. "We are one of the largest manufacturers of dock levellers for industrial warehouses in the UK, and produce around 2,500 a year. A decade ago, the collective output of the whole industry was of a similar number. We are taking a bigger share of the market, but the market is growing too. We welcome new opportunities to develop products for school buildings, which we think represents a growth area."
In 2006, RBL built a single storey classroom block using precast concrete panels at the de Ferrers technology college in a prelude to the sports hall build.
