Design and construction of a new 8 storey student accommodation comprising 262 en-suite studio bedrooms and associated front and back of house areas and retail units at ground floor level.
The lower ground floor houses a games area, gym, WC’s, laundry room and luggage storage as well as a cycle store and refuse area.
Located on the upper ground level via the main entrance are the main reception, seating and café space along with secured access to 23 studios. Levels 3 to 8 contain studio bedrooms at each floor, in double bank arrangement.
The site is city centre, bounded by Duke St. to North, Havannah St. to East, High St. car park/train station to South and West – including main pedestrian route from adjacent student accommodation and car park to city centre. The site was a former railway goods and service yard, leaving inherent risk in the ground from construction and contaminents.
To achieve a substantial cost/time savings we proposed an alternative pile solution, steel tube in lieu of rotary bore, which was high risk due to the sites previous history. We de-risked the solution by carrying out further site intrusive excavations and probes, and subsequently installed the alternative solution, reducing noise/dust and machinery on site and mitigating soil extractions.
The former wall to the site on Duke Street is listed as “historical value” and was both retained and incorporated into the new development to the requirements of the Planning Authority.
The wall restricted access to the site and required protection methods to be installed to prevent damage as the works progressed. These were planned and detailed in advance to avoid disruption to the new works.