St Gregory’s Catholic School

Procured under the Kent County Council (KCC) Framework, Baxall delivered the design and build 4-court sports hall with adjacent teaching block at St. Gregory’s Catholic School in Tunbridge Wells, for client Gen2/KCC. The modern 2-storey teaching block comprised 2 chemistry labs and 2 changing rooms on the ground floor, with 6 standard classrooms plus offices and staff room on the first floor.

Challenges included the school’s confined, landlocked site with live concurrent works (also undertaken by Baxall) at the adjacent Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys (TWGSB). Proactively managing multiple stakeholders’ interests via clear and transparent communication was therefore key to this mid-pandemic project delivery. Baxall’s Project Manager liaised daily with both schools to discuss tasks and collaboratively review the working programme in advance to identify and efficiently plan for future key dates.

Complex and limited access conditions throughout the project’s duration required precise logistical planning to obtain permits enabling construction vehicles to traverse sections of land owned and used by TWGSB, to reach the St. Gregory’s construction site. From the outset Baxall forged close and collaborative working relationships with both schools as well as with Highways, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council and Fusion Leisure, operators of Tunbridge Wells Sports Centre. Located within the live St. Gregory’s site, Tunbridge Wells Sports Centre is a public sports facility and remained open throughout the vast majority of the 61-week construction period.

A particularly wet 2020/21 winter in conjunction with the site’s low-lying location created challenging groundworks. Heavy rainfall initially flooded much of the area – including the school playing fields – with considerable runoff discharging into the sloping site, so the team had to carefully control and monitor the dewatering measures. To ensure site safety measures and logistics were clearly defined from the beginning Baxall employed a full time Gateman to control site access and egress, minimise site traffic impact and segregate construction operations. Enhanced safety and security measures included debris netting and acoustic panels while Baxall’s Project Manager engaged with the supply chain via regular toolbox talks.

A vital element of the successful delivery was maintaining pupils’ safe daily passage to and from the respective school sites and sports pitches, an approximate 500m walk traversing sections of St. Gregory’s school grounds (and a public right of way bisecting the two sites close to live construction works).  As a legacy to ensure all students remain fully segregated from the public, Baxall constructed a permanent student pedestrian bridge to securely link the two school sites. The crane lift to install the new bridge was carefully scheduled for during weekends and half-term to mitigate any disturbance.

The structure of St. Gregory’s sports hall and adjacent teaching block was built in steel. As part of Baxall’s pre-planned Brexit mitigation strategy much of the materials were already stockpiled on site to ensure the project adhered to schedule; this pre-emptive move proved highly effective when the pandemic hit and increased material lead-in times yet further. Despite this logistically challenging project the team successfully delivered St. Gregory’s impressive sports hall and teaching block on time and budget, to the highest quality and with zero defects. As testament to the exemplary standards maintained throughout, Baxall achieved a CCS score of 44 of 50. As a moral gesture – and enhanced safety legacy – Baxall took the decision (and bore the financial cost) to replace the project’s original spec cladding PIR insulation with mineral wool. In addition, Baxall purchased 3 bat boxes and created log piles from felled trees to form ecological habitats (all at Baxall’s own cost).