TPA's aluminium panels prove their mettle at Corby

26 Apr

Introduction

Temporary roadways from specialist access solutions provider TPA were the only real option for main contractor Jeakins Weir when it came to building a new sports ground.

The Project

Some 220 heavy duty aluminium panels were laid by TPA around the perimeter of an existing sports pitch for Jeakins Weir’s general plant hire vehicles to access the new sports ground at Corby Technical School, one of 10 schools in the Brooke Weston Trust’s portfolio.

Rated “Outstanding” by Ofsted, the school had earmarked a patch of land for an all-weather sports pitch and changing room block the other side of a line of trees by the school’s main car park.

Challenge

The structurally designed box sections with surface profile for cross camber grip were on site for the eight weeks before Christmas, at a time when the school was fully operational despite a Covid lockdown, for key workers’ children and then the return of all the students.

This meant the Jeakins Weir team had to work around multiple down-tools periods in a day, due to the students arriving on site and having lunch and other breaks.

Consequently, this meant the team had only 30-40% of normal access time to the site. But despite that, the project was finished on time and on budget. Part of this was down to the decision to use TPA panels rather than sacrificial stone.

Solution

TPA designed the route for the 7.35m2 aluminium panels and just a few days after a site survey, a crew of two men took 1.5 days to install them using a HIAB wagon.

TPA business development manager Clive Boon added: “We have worked with Jeakins Weir on numerous school extensions over the past few years. At Corby Technical School, stone was not an option and our design of the panels, quick installation and the way the design came together worked well.”

Client Comment

Jeakins Weir site manager Neil Squires said: “TPA were very flexible considering the restrictions we had to work around. They never had to come back and do any maintenance on the trackways because they were installed correctly in the first instance.

“They helped the project run smoothly and come in on time. Without their trackways it would have been unfeasible as sacrificial stone just wouldn’t have worked in this case.”