Built on greenbelt land prone to flooding, a new £5 million state-of-the-art primary school in Hull required an underground stormwater solution which would address surface water run-off. Used to create a large underground structure for the temporary storage of stormwater, the tried and tested AquaCell Core from Wavin, the UK’s leading manufacturer of plumbing, rainwater and drainage systems, provided the ideal solution.
Developed by Hull Esteem Consortium, a partnership that includes Sewell Group, Morgan Sindall Construction and Robertson Capital Project, the Kingswood Parks Primary School will cater for 315 primary aged pupils, and more than 40 nursery and pre-nursery age children. Following recommendations from the Environment Agency which required surface water to be managed prior to run-off, main contractor Sewell Group specified the AquaCell Core system to reduce the risk of flooding.
Manufactured from virgin plastic for trafficked and deep applications, AquaCell Core was installed below an outdoor multi-use games area to create a storage tank for surface water prior to draining into the main sewerage system. Aquacell Core has the strength and loading capability to be able to support the tarmac paviour and vehicles during the play area’s construction.
“As the site didn’t lend itself to the use of an attenuation pond due to both the space required to install a pond as well as the safety issues at a primary school, Wavin’s AquaCell Core system met our requirements perfectly, more commercially viable than other systems available as well as offering ease of installation at this Greenfield site,” commented Mark Boothby, Project Manager at the Sewell Group.
Following excavations, the 870mm build up consisted of 70mm tarmac, 300mm Type 3 stone, the 400mm deep AquaCell unit and 100mm single sized aggregate.
Quickly assembled on site, the BBA approved AquaCell system is available in a range of units and strengths including AquaCell Eco, Core, Prime and Plus which can be mixed and matched to create the optimum installation for a range of applications including domestic, landscaped, trafficked and non-trafficked sites or for deeper installations.
AquaCell has proven lateral and vertical loading performance and provides an effective answer to managing excessive rainfall. The individual units can simply be clipped together or for additional strength are designed so they can be ‘brick bonded’ laid for enhanced stability to form the required volume. Once in place, the units are then wrapped in either geotextile sheet or membrane and sealed to create a watertight envelope.
As a pioneer in modular, lightweight polypropylene geocellular stormwater management (SWM) units, Wavin has become a leader in managing stormwater at source through efficient capture, transportation, cleansing and attenuation.
With the school set to open for the new school year in September 2014, Wavin’s AquaCell system will ensure that this new state-of-the-art educational establishment will have a proven stormwater solution ensuring effective flood protection for the long term.
