Construction Skills Centre, City College, Norwich
Value - £4.5m | Client - City College Norwich
A new learning environment designed for students developing their construction skills to help meet industry demands of today and tomorrow.
The Construction Skills Centre is a high-quality learning facility in Norwich and comprises a 1,200m2 two-storey, steel-framed building, with precast concrete floor planks at the upper levels.
Clancy was engaged by the City College to provide key civil and structural engineering design, and geoenvironmental services to deliver the new learning facility.
Sustainability features highly within the design, allowing for long-life flexible building use, to enable the college to meet the demands of the construction industry and the provision of future courses.
To overcome tight timescales, our team of geotechnical engineers developed an efficient and low-risk foundation solution that captured and infiltrated water into the ground, rather than discharging into the larger Norwich network.
The Norfolk Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) challenged the drainage design because of the building’s intended use, but evidenced justification minimised delays throughout the planning process.
We used low-carbon, efficient materials to meet its goals. This meant creating concrete mixes that followed the latest guidelines. Using GGBS cement replacements in the ground beams alone saved 140kg of carbon per meter cubed, equating to 18 tonnes of carbon compared to the original proposed mix.
The project secured investment from the Department for Education and will help the region meet its requirement for 19,050 construction workers by 2027.
Testimonial:
“City College Norwich is extremely pleased with the services provided by Clancy Consulting for the Construction Skills Hub project. Their engineering expertise was evident in the design, which allows for flexible building use in line with long life, loose fit circular economy design principles. This flexibility was put to the test with a last-minute change of use to electrical workshops, which Clancy handled seamlessly to meet the evolving needs of our college.
"The tight design and construction programme was efficiently managed thanks to Clancy’s in-house geotechnical engineers who developed a low-risk foundation solution. Throughout the construction phase, Clancy’s local design team provided invaluable support and even engaged with our students, explaining the design principles and career paths in engineering.
"Clancy also played a crucial role in leading the design team through LLFA consultations during the planning process, ensuring minimal delays on our tight schedule.
"We highly recommend Clancy Consulting for their professionalism, expertise, and dedication.”
Matt Poll
Director of Estates and Facilities at City College Norwich
Services used:
Geoenvironmental
Civil engineering
Structural engineering
Other education projects:
