Norton Hill Primary School, Midsomer Norton

EJ McGrath delivered the groundworks and Section 278 highway works for main contractor ISG Construction on the new Norton Hill Primary School in Midsomer Norton, a school built for the Department for Education and Bath and North East Somerset Council. Working as a specialist subcontractor, we self-delivered everything from bulk earthworks and substructures through to the off-site highway improvements needed to open the school, including a substantial precast box-culvert attenuation tank on Silver Street.

The brief

ISG appointed us on the groundworks package and the accompanying Section 278 package. The task was to take the site from cut and fill through to finished external works, and to upgrade the surrounding public highway so the new school could be accessed safely. All of it was carried out by our own teams and plant.

What we did on the school site

• Cut and fill earthworks across the whole site to formation levels, including rock and hard dig
• Reinforced concrete strip and pad foundations, column bases with cast-in holding-down bolts, and a lift pit
• Substructure brickwork and blockwork, damp-proofing and radon protection
• Foul and surface-water drainage, precast manholes and cellular soakaways
• Land drainage to the sports pitches and a fenced multi-use games area (MUGA)
• Roads, car park, footpaths and playground, with kerbing and surfacing
• Bin store and cycle shelter bases, habitat areas and soft landscaping

What we did on the public highway (Section 278)

• New and widened carriageway, footways and a cycleway on Silver Street, Llynwood Close and Silver Close
• Precast kerbing, tactile and corduroy paving, road markings and signs
• New foul and surface-water drainage in sizes up to 450mm diameter, with precast manholes
• Road lighting columns and CCTV masts, with associated ducting
• Service trenching and ducting for the diversion of Wessex Water, Western Power Distribution (WPD) and BT apparatus
• A run of around 60m of precast box-culvert units, installed as a surface-water attenuation tank in the new footway

The challenge

The Section 278 works were carried out in a live public highway under traffic management, running alongside ISG’s school-build programme. The box-culvert attenuation tank was craned in section by section into a live footway, and we coordinated three statutory undertakers along the same corridor to keep the works moving.

The outcome

We completed both packages to hand ISG a finished school platform and an upgraded public highway serving the new Norton Hill Primary School.