Little Bushy Warren Composting Site
Design and Construction of major extensions to Hampshire County Council’s Composting Site, at Little Bushywarren, near Basingstoke comprising the following:
- A 40,000 sq m extension to concrete slab, on which the composting operation is conducted. The construction of 2 reinforced concrete settling lagoons, each 57m x 25m in area and 2m deep, with associated mechanical and electrical installations. The construction of a 70m x 25m x 8m high steel portal-framed storage shed for the product of the composting process. The shed has a 7m high internal pushwall on 3 sides, and new welfare facilities for the operating staff. The project also included the final landscaping, with construction of the screening bunds and security fences
- Value engineering, conducted by Dyer & Butler with its designer Archibald Shaw, and agreed with Onyx, resulted in savings in the following areas :-
- Cut and fill optimised to eliminate import of filling material. Topsoil and any excess material was retained for use in screening bunds
- Adoption of cement / lime stabilisation techniques to reduce traffic movements and eliminate importation of capping material
- Construction of slab in roller-compacted concrete, allowing rapid construction and reducing overall contract period. Roller-compacted concrete is batched on site and laid using a conventional paving machine and compacted using large vibrating rollers.
- The design of the slab and lagoons had to take into consideration the presence of an aquafa beneath the site. The design had to ensure that the aqaufa remained uncontaminated from leechage through construction and in the permanent works.
- The works were constructed within a live recycling/composting site. All construction activities were planned with this condition a governing factor.
- The co-ordination of the cement/lime stabilisation, roller compacted concrete, and structural steelwork erectors & cladder’s suppliers along with Dyer & Butlers in house construction activities was a major element of the efficient planning and execution of the works.