FP MCCANN ‘L’ WALLS FORM PITCH BOUNDARIES AT NEW PLYMOUTH ARGYLE TRAINING FACILITY
Project: New Training and Community Hub Plymouth, Devon
Client: Plymouth Argyle, Argyle Community Trust, Plymouth City Council, Plymouth Albion RFC, and Devonport Community Leisure Limited (DCLL)
Principal Contractor: WhiteBox Construction Management
Civil Engineering/Groundworks: John Luffman Trading Ltd
Products Supplied: FP McCann Precast Concrete Straight and Corner ‘L’ Walls. Heights from 1.0m to 3.75m
FP McCann is supplying its precast concrete ‘L’ Wall system to a new training and community facility in Plymouth, Devon. Plymouth Argyle, Argyle Community Trust, Plymouth City Council, Plymouth Albion RFC, and Devonport Community Leisure Limited (DCLL) have come together to transform the existing Brickfields site into a sporting centre of excellence and asset for the wider Plymouth community. The work is in tandem with the ongoing construction of a new community hub on the same site to be named “Foulston Park”.
Exeter based Principal Contractor Whitebox Construction Management are heading the £21 million project and have appointed groundworks and civil engineering specialist John Luffman Trading Ltd to undertake key construction works including the installation of FP McCann’s precast concrete ‘L’ Wall system. Prior to placing the ‘L’ Wall order, Whitebox Construction Management visited FP McCann’s Lydney factory in Gloucestershire to assess the suitability of the offsite manufactured earth retaining and boundary wall system. Speed and ease of installation over a traditional masonry build accelerating construction times, determined that the steel reinforced precast ‘L’ Wall solution would be utilised to provide the earth retaining boundaries to the training pitches.
In total, the order comprises some 140 standard straight and corner units ranging in heights from 1.0m to 3.75m to accommodate land elevation changes.
The skilled John Luffman fixing team are setting down the ‘L’ Walls on in-situ concrete foundation slabs. Each individual wall unit is dowelled into the slab using steel dowel rods via holes in the ‘L’ Wall toe section. This method of walling is a simple and fast process and eliminates the need for steel formwork, shuttering and the pouring of wet concrete. An additional benefit of the ‘L’ Wall system is that no support props are required during construction.
Speaking on behalf of John Luffman Trading Ltd, Operations Director Matt Atkins says, “This tried and tested earth retention method is ideal for this site with the variations in land elevation. After quickly familiarising themselves with the anchoring and levelling method, our install team found the walls easy to set down. FP McCann’s ‘L’ Wall units are a simple, durable and cost-efficient means of creating an earth retaining wall, allowing us to work quickly and confidently with the elevation changes on site. The construction of a brick wall would have been both very costly and time consuming. I am confident that the ‘L’ Walls installed will offer a long-term, low maintenance boundary solution.”
Applications for the FP McCann ‘L’ Wall unit include:-Perimeter and Boundary Walls; Earth Retaining Walls; Stock Bays and Push Walls; Dividing Walls.
For further information on FP McCann’s walling solutions, contact
James Hodgson | 07753 415817 | sales@fpmccann.co.uk
