EDUCATION
St Declan’s Community College
A state, Co-educational and Multi-denominational post primary school. St Declan’s was originally founded as the Village School in 1969 with just 68 pupils, and in 1983 was renamed St Declan’s Community College.
Location
Kilmacthomas,
Co. Waterford
Size
1,300 sqm
Duration
8 months
A standalone, 2-storey, low carbon in-operation expansion project that delivered a BCAR-compliant specialist classroom block, with a Building Energy Rating (BER) of A, and an air tightness test less than 1m³/hr/m².
A significant build, comprising of 40 sections, the two-storey extension was completed in eight months. Manufactured offsite, the 1,300m2 modular classroom block is a nearly zero-energy building (nZeb). The specialist classroom block now houses eight classrooms, a construction and design room, a SEN room, shower and assisted toilets, staff workspace and toilets on both floors, and stairways at either side of the building, with an internal lift to accommodate less abled students.
The project also included significant siteworks including concrete steps, retaining walls, large excavation works and the construction of a new vehicular access road.
Delivering a sustainable building for the future, this highly-insulated and airtight modular building has already achieved a ‘best-in-class’ BER A rating, which will contribute to efficiencies within the school’s future running costs.
M+E PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS
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Plumbing, ventilation and installation of a Split Air Conditioning heating and cooling system. Room controls have been installed with ease of use in mind.
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Boosted cold water is provided to all cold-water outlets throughout the building with non-concussive taps to all wash hand basins within the toilet areas. Hot water is provided by efficient point-of-use water heaters.
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S&P extract fans are controlled by presence detectors.
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LPS Gas provided to the science rooms complete with automatic gas controls in the science classroom and prep rooms.
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Efficient LED light fittings throughout, with programmable PIR presence detection sensors.
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3phase supply to specialist machinery in construction and engineering rooms.
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CCTV cameras throughout building, connected to school’s security system.
SITEWORKS
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New vehicular access road. Due to the proposed site only being accessible by foot, a new 130m long vehicular access road, accessible pedestrian footpaths, two ramped pedestrian crossings, a turning area, set down area and a disabled parking bay were constructed.
As the works were carried out during school term times in a live school site, careful management of vehicular and pedestrian movements was paramount to ensure the safety of students, staff and workers.
Siteworks also included:
Installation of services and drainage infrastructure and construction of reinforced concrete pad foundations for the new modular building. -
Significant reduced level excavations and disposal of excavated materials offsite. This also included a large amount of rock breaking (>900m3)
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Forming a new soft-play area which included stone buildup, perimeter kerbing, wetpour rubber surfacing, specialist bowtop railings and bowtop gates.
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Significant in situ concrete retaining wall structures were constructed on either side of the access road, comprising of over 230 linear meters of retaining walls, ranging from 1.7m high to over 4m high.
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Three new in-situ external concrete staircases were constructed in different locations throughout the site to provide safe pedestrian access to the Modular Building and surrounding areas.
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Over 200m of foul drainage installed, connecting the new building to a foul manhole next to the existing school building. This also included all relevant connections and construction of numerous concrete backdrop manholes over 2m deep.
280m of stormwater pipework including 225mm diameter and 300mm diameter pipework, including the construction of a new geocellular attenuation storage system with hydro-break manhole and final connection to the existing surface water network.
Extension of the existing watermain to over 200m in 100mm pipework, providing a water connection and new fire hydrant.
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Services trenching, ducting and linking of main electrical, fire alarm, intruder alarm and fibre backbone to integrate with existing systems in the school.
Diversion of the existing underground ESB cable to facilitate the works which involved trenching and ducting.
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New street lighting, bollard lighting and CCTV cameras installed.
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