Poplar Farm shortlisted for Construction Project of the Year
Poplar Farm shortlisted for Construction Project of the Year
New primary school building up for East Midlands Celebrating Construction Awards.
Poplar Farm Primary Schools building has been shortlisted for a construction industry award. Wates entered the East Midlands Celebrating Construction Awards for its work building the school, and has been shortlisted in the Value and Project of the Year award categories.
Among other criteria, shortlisted entrants were required to demonstrate evidence of an outstanding building project where the quality exceeded expectation, which was delivered to the highest health and safety standards, and achieved low environmental impacts. The Poplar Farm project saw 98.5% of waste diverted from landfill.
Poplar Farms building needed to be future proofed to accommodate the growing need for primary school places in the Grantham area. To make this possible, Wates Construction applied its own design solution, ADAPT, which means the school structure can be expanded easily in the future.
The school currently boasts 14 classrooms together with a school hall, kitchen, library and toilets that can all be easily extended to accommodate a three-form class entry if required. Specific wishes of the teaching staff, such as additional roof lights to inject more natural light and storage spaces built into teaching walls, were also incorporated into the design.
Poplar Farm also required a brand new grass sports pitch. On school projects of this nature, this would typically be installed at the end of a build, but as grass takes a year to grow, it would have meant the school did not have access to the grounds for up to 12 months. Wates therefore installed the pitch while creating the foundations for the school building so the children had a usable outdoor space straight away come September.
John Carlin, Regional Managing Director, Wates Construction Midlands, said:
The teams ability to execute efficient design has been honed through years of experience working in the education sector. It is this experience and know-how which ensures our developments continue to bring economic benefits to our clients.
For Poplar Farm, we were able to apply our knowledge of how modern schools operate, current teaching requirements and the way in which learning environments can impact upon academic attainment. As a result, this complex, challenge-rich project was met with confidence and delivered with quality five weeks ahead of programme. We will all have our fingers crossed for awards night!
Wates Construction was appointed to build the new school by Lincolnshire County Council via the East Midlands Property Alliance (empa) framework, which is designed to deliver wider community benefits and a tangible local economic impact.
The East Midlands Celebrating Construction Awards are open to both public and private sector organisations/projects based in the East Midlands and whose business is construction-related. The winners of the awards will be announced at the East Midlands Celebrating Construction Awards event on May 10th.
