iQ Collingwood

Project Overview

We worked with Adderstone group alongside Brims Construction to deliver the 272 bed student accommodation on the edge of the city centre. The development is an eight-storey, high-quality student accommodation consisting of 20 studios and 46 cluster apartments. Located at Kings Manor, the 2,200m2 site is adjacent to Northumbria University’s City Campus East. The student accommodation hosts a fitness suite, games room, study area and lounge as well as high spec cinema room and rooftop terrace.

Network Rail (NR) & Northumbria Water (NWL) were direct consultee’s as part of the planning procedure, due to both being responsible for assets within close proximity of the site. NR & NWL had previously objected to similar developments as their impacts on critical infrastructure had not been demonstrated. The site is within 10.0m of an existing 5.0m high NR owned historic retaining wall, founded directly over an NWL interceptor sewer which carries all foul drainage from the city to the treatment works as well as the Pandon Burn culvert which carries surface and ground water from vast areas of the city to the River Tyne.

We were able to engage with both parties and developed a foundation solution consisting of a “deep hollow raft” foundation that allowed us to found our building over the existing infrastructure without increasing the load of the assets by any greater than 5% of the mass of the natural ground. By undergoing this exercise we had been able to demonstrate that the site could be built upon and facilitated the successful planning application, the removal of the Network Rail restrictive covenant and the transfer of the NWL build over agreement with a N1 tunnel agreement essentially removing all obstacles to the development commencing.

Awards:

IStructE Northern Counties Structural Awards: Highly Commended (Large Project)