Case Study

Client :	Cumnor House School, Kent
Time Frame:	Commenced January 2013    Estimated Completion Summer 2013

"I would thoroughly recommend Bruce and David Weller to anybody looking to upgrade their school sports facilities. From feasibility through to detailed design and planning advice they have assisted our school professionally and successfully to meet our aspirations and budget”    Mark Dickens – Bursar,  Cumnor House School, March 2013

Cumnor House School Master Plan 1

Cumnor House School Master Plan 2

Background:

The school wished to increase the provision of sports fields within its grounds. Whilst there was adequate space available in the fields to the south of the school, the severity of the existing slopes would require ground remodelling to achieve levelled surfaces suitable for field sports.

Rather than construct the pitches through a process of ‘cut and fill’ (as undertaken on previously constructed pitches at the school) SPDB Ltd proposed levelling the ground through a process of ground raising only. 

This would be achieved by bringing the necessary soils and subsoils onto the site by lorry delivery and then shaping the material as required. These soils would be sourced from the surrounding area, mainly from construction site and service line excavations.  

There are a number of advantages in using this method of construction, the principle one being that it a firm well draining sports field is being created with none of the issues connected with excavating into the ground and the issues with surface drainage this brings with it. Additionally there is a royalty which the hauliers pay the school for the benefit of being able to recycle / recover this soil as opposed to taking it to landfill sites (which is a waste of a natural resource and unsustainable). The royalty payment to the school is paying for both the planning and construction of the sports pitches

For Cumnor House School this is a far more cost effective method of sports pitch construction than the cut and fill process, indeed without this process the cost of building the additional sports facilities would have been prohibitive.

Other advantages

Process

SPDB Ltd prepared all the necessary planning details required by the local planning authority as well as the necessary environmental permits from the Environment Agency for the soil importation operation.

Having obtained planning approval worked commenced on the site in January 2013. Before the soil import operation commenced the site was prepared.  This included the establishment of a contractor’s compound and administration office, the provision of a lorry wheel wash facility, the creation of a hardcore lorry access road, the installation of tree protection fencing and the stripping and storage of the existing topsoil.

On completion of the above lorries were given access to the site (via an access well away from the normal day to day operation of the school). Each lorry has to register its arrival to the site at the administration office and all necessary documentation checked and approved before commencing further.  On approval each lorry is directed to the appropriate tipping zone where the soils are deposited, pushed, consolidated  and shaped by a bulldozer.  On exit from the site each lorry has to pass through a wheel washing facility in order to prevent any debris reaching the highway.

When the final subsoil formation levels are completed the stored topsoil will be reintroduced and the pitches drained, cultivated and seeded to the required sports pitch specification.

Completion of Project:

The project will be completed by mid summer 2013 and seeded in the autumn 2013. Cumnor House School will have a multi use sports field that can accommodate football, rugby and cricket. The design will also feature spectator banking which will also be formed from soil imported to the site.

Whilst at the present time it is intended that the sports fields are grass , in the future there is no reason why the artificial surfaces cannot be installed on these pitches.

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