FP McCann Precast Concrete Architectural Headwalls and Box Culvert installed on Gloucester Housing Development
Project: New Housing Development. Innsworth, Gloucester
Client: Taylor Wimpey Homes
Main Infrastructure Contractor: Montel Civil Engineering
Merchant Supplier: EH Smith
FP McCann Products Supplied: Precast Architectural Stone-Effect Façade Headwalls; Precast Box Culvert Sections.
FP McCann has supplied its first bespoke concrete imprinted architectural headwalls to a new Taylor Wimpey housing development in the village of Innsworth, Gloucester. The Whittle Gardens site once complete will consist of 2, 3 and 4 bedroom properties.
The box culvert/headwall configuration has been constructed by Bristol and Worcester based infrastructure specialist Montel Civil Engineering. It is situated adjacent to the line of an existing watercourse and new open ditches, created as part of the site SUDS and designed to channel excess storm water run-off from the development via the culvert into a man-made attenuation lagoon. Spanning the culvert, a public footpath will provide access through the development.
The Montel Civil Engineering team in conjunction with Taylor Wimpey’s engineers and EH Smith contacted FP McCann early in the design stage to explore the possibilities of them manufacturing a bespoke stone-effect façade to create an attractive architectural finish to the culvert’s inlet and outlet headwalls. Having utilised the Reckli formliner system on a number of architectural precast concrete building panels, the FP McCann team of engineers at Weston Underwood, Derbyshire, were able to simply transfer this concrete imprinting process to create the textured stone-effect finish on the headwalls.
The main culvert run consists of six precast concrete box culvert sections each measuring 2400mm (Internal width); 1200mm (Internal height); 1900mm (Length). The surrounding inlet headwall is made up of three individual units, two wing walls and a top beam. The outlet headwall consists of four wing wall sections and a top beam. Each headwall has been specifically designed to suit the topography surrounding the culvert and the stone-effect finish complements the watercourse aggregate filter bed.
The precast units were all delivered from FP McCann’s Byley factory in Cheshire and the steel safety rails retrospectively fitted by the Montel team.
Commenting on the culvert install, James Cooney, Contracts Manager for Montel Civil Engineering says, “The precast concrete box section culvert and bespoke stone-effect headwalls have provided the ideal engineering and architectural solution to construct this watercourse crossing. The finished structure neatly blends into its surrounds and demonstrates the flexibility that precast concrete has to offer in such infrastructure schemes.”
For further information on FP McCann’s architectural and structural solutions, contact the team at
BYLEY 01606 843500 | GRANTHAM 01476 562277 | LITTLEPORT 01353 861416
