Dover Leisure Centre

Client
Dover District Council
Contractor
Value
£20.5m
Completion Date
February 2019

BAM Construction built a new leisure centre which includes swimming pools, sports hall, squash courts and a gym. The new leisure centre has been designed to meet the latest Sport England facilities requirements, including access for people with a wide range of disabilities.

Key Features:

Eight-lane, 25m swimming pool
- Spectator seating at high level
- Learner pool with movable floor
- Poolside sauna and steam room
- Wet changing village
- Clip ‘n climb feature
- Two squash courts
- Four-court sports hall
- Fitness suite

The Challenge

Site Conditions: Due to the quality of soil and level differences, more than 12,000m3 of topsoil and material needed to be removed from site to form the level base and pits for the pool and squash courts.

Budget: Challenging budget requiring innovative cost effective design solutions.

The Solution

Site Conditions: BAM established a link with a local waste centre just 3.3 miles away. The material was removed from site and delivered to the centre as capping material, on return, these lorries delivered recycled aggregates for use on site. To reduce disruption to local communities, BAM used precast piles instead of traditional continuous flight auger piling. Traditional piling would have needed an additional 80 lorry movements for the concrete deliveries and soil removal. Using the alternative BAM reduced this to just 16 deliveries keeping our impact on the community to a minimum.

Budget: Redesign led to the omission of the basement and the relocation of the substation saved significant cost and 4 weeks on programme. Fortnightly design and cost review meetings were held and early engagement with BAM on the MEP package meant that we could optimise the ventilation design, changing it to cross-ventilation. As well as saving over £100k, combining this solution with CO2 sensors and control units throughout the building, enabled the management team to create a better and fresher indoor environment for the user.

The Results

The Dover leisure project team (led by Dover District Council) developed into a strong and organised group working towards the common goal – the opening of the leisure centre – on time, to budget and the right quality.
The building represents a major investment in the health and well-being of the district that is fit for the 21st century that sets new standards in facilities, access, and sustainability. The new leisure centre is accessible to all, providing easy access to the swimming pools, and wheelchair accessible gym and changing facilities.
Fully transparent cost management built trust and confidence early on. BAM were instrumental in delivering £1.4m of added value benefits during the design development process.

304

Apprentice weeks

£3.8m

SME Spend

£3m

Added Value

100%

Client Satisfaction

Client Testimonials

Contractor Performance | Commitments

Fair

Payment periods not exceeding 30 days

Safe

Zero RIDDORs

Aftercare

SCF Charter

Legacy

60% local labour / £6.4m social value delivered

20 local school and college visits; 14 weeks of work placements provided; 21 advanced H&S qualifications

36 qualifications were achieved by those working on this project.

Created more than £250,000 worth of value in local skills and employment

Sustainability

The Centre is the most energy efficient leisure centre in Kent with a Grade A energy certificate rating. The new building uses a gas combined heat and power (CHP) plant which produces electricity and hot water for the site.

70 solar panels producing 27.22 MWh of electricity since opening and saving 69,567.15kg of CO2 emissions.

The local branch of Community Wood Recycling was engaged to transfer waste timber from site.

SCF Framework Manager

James Wright

Email: james.wright@hants.gov.uk

Phone: : 07761 330560

Contractor Framework Manager

Darren Birch

Email: dbirch@bam.com

Phone: 07920 134843