The facts
Project Location: Morfa Road,
Swansea
Client: Watkin Jones Ltd
Start Date: 2009
Completion Date: 2010
Contract Type: Design and Build
Procurement method: Design and Build
Project Construction Value: £40m
Services provided: Civil, Structural and
Geotechnical Engineering
Capita Symonds contacts: Wayne Ballance –
Project Director, Martin Todd – Project Engineer, Jon Cooper –
Structural Engineer, Jonathan Palmer – Structural Engineer, Tim
Major – Associate, Geotechnical Engineer
The project
Working on behalf of Watkin Jones Ltd, Capita Symonds provided
Civil, Structural and Geo-environmental services for this
£40million predominantly student accommodation mixed-use
development in Swansea.
The development consists of six blocks of student accommodation
with commercial space at lower levels.
The site is located over a former dry dock, which has added
complexity to the foundation solution due to pollution pathways.
The foundation solution therefore has to form a bridging structure
over the disused docks.
Also, extensive work has been undertaken by the
Geo-environmental team in assessing and mitigating the
contamination resulting from the site’s previous uses of a copper
works, pottery, patent fuel works and a heavy engineering
works.
The superstructure comprises of a steel frame designed as
partial sway, gaining stability through a network of braced bays
and moment frames. Composite decking with sheer studs have been
utilised to optimise beam depths and weights providing an
economical and efficient design solution.