Client:    Willmott Dixon / University of South Wales

Sector:          Education

Value:           £7m

Cambria Consulting were the Civil and Structural Engineers for the new State of the Art Engineering facilities constructed as part of the on-going redevelopment of the USW Treforest Campus, Pontypridd.

This project had to be built within the confines of a working university campus, hence safe access was to be maintained across the construction site at all times.

We proposed that an innovative contiguous piled retaining wall be introduced within an advanced works package to allow the existing access road and car parking areas to be used throughout the contract period.

This saved the Contractor time on site, reduced costs and provided students with safe access across the campus throughout the redevelopment. This also delivered zero down time for the existing facilities and therefore no lost revenue for the University.

We also proposed a change to the original design by creating a flat roof with much higher thermal mass to gain the available BREEAM credits.  This also delivered additional flexibility for the University such that roof could be converted to provide additional teaching floor space at some time in the future.  This was achieved at minimal capital cost and maximised the Client’s aspirations for expanding the curriculum in the future.