Exmouth Community College Academy Trust
Exmouth
Project Details
Client
Exmouth Community College Academy Trust
Project Manager
NPS
Architect
NPS
Contractor
Interserve
Value
£2.1m
Contract Period
44 weeks
Procurement Type
Construct
Form of Contract
JCT with CPD elements
Size
950m2
Project Summary
This project delivered a high quality, fit-for-purpose learning facility and social space for Exmouth Community College Academy Trust. The new building provides the College with a two storey, eight-classroom block with the future potential to extend to add a further eight classrooms and link corridor.
The maths block has been built on a brownfield site within the existing school campus. Several old buildings including an automotive workshop and a stable block were stripped of asbestos and demolished to make way for the new development.
Interserve provided support to the College and NPS to compile a grant application to secure the required funding for the project. Funding was provided by the Education Funding Agency Condition Improvement Fund, Devon County Council and the College. The college has also invested in new technology for the building, including eight virtual smart boards.
Additional car parking has also been provided for the school.
“The new mathematics block is a wonderful example of what quality building can be achieved by close communication between the school, architects and builders. The rooms are bright and airy with adequate storage space and state-of-theart heating, cooling and lighting. The whole environment is conducive to high-class teaching and learning.”
“The Interserve preconstruction team went above and beyond with their support to help achieve a common goal. The team were brilliant to work with.”
Community Engagement
Local SME’s Employed
- 53% (SME’s)
- 64% within 30miles
- 22% within 60miles
- 14% 60miles +
Key Challenges
Site at the far side of the college
We built a new entrance at the back of the college and next to site to ensure vehicles and deliveries did not go through the school. We employed a full time gateman to manage this entrance and had delivery embargoes around school drop off and pick up times.
Regular communication between the College and our site team ensured that works / deliveries stopped whilst pupils walked over the pedestrian bridge, which links the two college campus’s together, between lessons. We were also able to ensure that all noisy works were programmed to occur outside of exam times for the pupils.
Challenging site due to previous buildings
The building was on the site of an old swimming pool. It would have been risky and expensive to use traditional footings due to the depth required to reach firm ground. We built a large raft footing which spanned the old pool and reduced risk, time, and excavated material.
Project Takeaways
Our Successes
- The client wanted an additional car park but did not have the funds. We proposed to omit the demolition of one of the buildings to free up some budget for the parking. We then worked with our local supply chain to arrive at a low cost solution to meet the budget
Our Learnings
- Construction tolerances must be built into the designs. Where large tolerance items such as structural steelwork meet low tolerance items such as windows and doors the interface must be designed to take the large tolerance into account.
Value Added
- Through a local delivery team we pushed for a local supply chain which ensured that both management and subcontractors had local knowledge in terms of roads, the community and the school itself.
- This also encouraged a sense of ownership, our Project Manager’s son and his friends children both attend the College.
KPI’s & Statistics
| Contract | Gateway 3 Contract Formation | Gateway 4 Final Account | Variation |
| Cost | £2.161m | £1.992m | £169k saving due to part of works transferred to next phase |
| Time | 10/6/16 | 24/6/16 | 14 day increase. Work added late in contract, EOT agreed |
Average CCS Score: 39
Cost per sqm: £2096
