St Pancras Campus

BREEAM excellent design

We were excited to be asked by John F Hunt to tender for the temporary works design and delivery for this sustainably ambitious 3-building scheme.

BAM Construction are the main contractors on this large 3-building, mixed-use development, situated between Kings Cross and Camden Town stations. It has been designed with sustainability in mind, using air source heat pumps and solar energy to drive an all-electric system, with a goal of achieving BREEAM ‘Excellent’ status.

Driving down costs

Our in-house Temporary Works Engineering Team specialise in improving projects at the pre-construction phase by taking a collaborative approach with contractors to value engineer temporary works designs. This helps to reduce project costs but also the impact the construction phase has on the environment, something particularly prevalent throughout the St Pancras Campus scheme.

The original temporary works design presented featured a mixture of knee braces and raking props down into thrust blocks on the basement slab. Our Temporary Works Team value engineered the design by reducing the number of props in the design from 27 down to 22.

The reduction of props was key to improving the construction phase. It immediately ensured less transport movements into inner city London, lowering the number of artic trucks required to deliver and collect the props by 8, reducing emissions and our carbon footprint. Decreasing the number of props also ensured the customer saved on proprietary system hire and transport service costs.

Improving efficiencies on-site

Less props meant less installation time, allowing the excavation to start sooner. Plus, it increased the work area, ensuring the contractor had more room to move on-site. This meant the work could be completed quicker and more efficiently, which reduced the overall dig programme.

Most of the propping design was proprietary, but there was a small amount that was structural, like the raking props to thrust blocks. This was to allow sub-contractor, John F Hunt, to build a concrete ramp over the top of the props, without damaging the proprietary system. The ramp provided vehicle access to the excavation as the bulk dig progressed, increasing the efficiency of on-site operations.

See how out St Pancras Campus project has developed in this great time-lapse video project developer, W.RE, shared on their LinkedIn page.