Moving On Up
With summer a fading memory, we are now enjoying getting back into the swing of things as we head into autumn. It was a busy summer for PRO Structures, as two new recruits have been settling in, which in turn has made us realise that we need new premises, soon to be confirmed but likely to be in the Golden Hill area off Kellaway Avenue in Horfield, Bristol.
We now have a team of seven, including 6 engineers ranging from students to directors, as well as admin and business services functions. We are delighted to welcome Antonio, who has come to us from Wintech with a background in structural curtain walling design, and Petra, our latest student placement who joins us from assisting Prime Properties. Meanwhile our other student, Martin, will shortly come back from a civil engineering placement in Swaziland as he enters his final year, and Vitalijus and Oliver are going from strength to strength in their career journeys.
On the drawing board – from Anguilla to Caledonian Road
Our work on the 15-storey Royal Wharf/Caledonian Road mixed use development in London for glazing specialist Ridgeway is progressing apace (pictured above), and we are proud to be providing the structural design for the glazed facades. Antonio has particular expertise in this area, which is proving very useful. The building’s curtain walling is currently being erected.
Meanwhile, we are providing the structural design for New Road Jetty in Anguilla in partnership with civil engineers DLN, which is currently at the detailed design phase and will go out to tender for contractors in the autumn and is worth approximately £6m.
Partly funded by the UK Government, DLN is providing crucial engineering consultancy advice for the scheme. This will include a determination of the preferred location for the new jetty, bathymetric surveys and geotechnical investigations, as well as work on the decommissioning of the old jetty.
The original timber Road Bay Jetty was built by British Army Engineers in 1970. This was then extended as a reinforced concrete structure in 1978 and again in 1986. As the only import jetty for containerised goods into Anguilla, Road Bay is of vital strategic and economic importance to the island, which will also have a great deal of work to do in terms of recovering and rebuilding in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Closer to Home
New build and conversion residental schemes
With an ever-increasing portfolio of clients and projects, our south-west workload is always close to our hearts. Driven concrete piling has just finished on a new 5 unit detached two-storey housing development in Congresbury, Bristol, for Creswicke Developments, for which we have undertaken the substructure design.
We are also providing structural engineering assistance to Logan Housing, for a new 23 unit scheme incorporating a degree of social housing, in North Molton, Devon. The scheme will use highly energy-efficient insulated concrete form (ICF) construction and driven piled foundations on part of the site, as there are large areas of historically made-up ground.
Meanwhile, construction is 50% complete on a bespoke mansion worth £500,000 for Spring Homes on the site of the former tennis courts adjacent to Redmaids School in Westbury on Trym in North Bristol, where we are providing engineering design services to the contractor B J Campbell (SW) Ltd.
Structural appraisal for barn conversions – a growing skill base
An area of work which we find ourselves in increasing demand for is providing structural engineering appraisal reports and engineering assistance for the conversion of agricultural barns into new residential or commercial dwellings. One such example is Phase 4 of the former Patrick Pinker Game Farm in Almondsbury, which is being converted to offices; this type of conversion throws up specific challenges which we are increasingly well placed to assist with as our expertise in this area grows.
Hotel knock-through at No 38
Boutique and Breakfast at your service…
Another technically interesting and challenging project on the board at the moment is for Boutique and Breakfast Ltd, where we are providing structural design for the partial conversion of 37 Upper Belgrave Road. This involves a ground to second floor expansion into the existing hotel next door at No 38 (pictured above with No 37 to the right), in order to create more hotel accommodation on the first and second floors, with a larger lobby being created on the ground floor by the knock-through between the buildings. The newly combined basement will also create accommodation and facilities for hotel staff.
This scheme is particularly interesting because the front elevation is listed, so we are working closely with architects Llewellyn Harker as well as the contractor Nelson Developments to addresses any unforeseen design issues as the building’s site strip gets underway, enabling the team to access the original structural elements central to and between the dwellings.
Easton Mosque Complete
Bristol’s biggest mosque now boasts a domed extension in the courtyard of the former church hall where it is based, having commissioned a two-storey extension to cope with growing numbers of worshippers. PRO Structures was delighted to provide structural superstructure designs along with site inspection services – and we are thrilled with the result.
That’s about it from us – we would just like to wish you a happy and fruitful autumn, and to thank all our clients, colleagues and suppliers for their ongoing trust and support.