Brecon Mountain Rescue Headquarters
Bear were appointed to provide civil and structural design consultancy services for this project.
This project was fundraising initiative by the Brecon Mountain Rescue Team who are a dedicated group of volunteers who provide emergency rescue services 24 hours a day, 365 days a year throughout Mid Wales. The new headquarters was designed to enable the crews to respond quicker to emergency calls and will have extra space to carry out additional training exercises to help continue saving lives. It will also have extra space to store life-saving equipment.
The project involved demolition of an existing industrial building to make way for modern fit for purpose two-storey headquarters building on a very tight site.
The headquarters building has a footprint of approximately 280sqm and incorporates garage facilities, wet / dry rooms, offices and training rooms. The slab of the existing building was crushed and re-used in the interest of sustainability.
In terms of the structural design, the foundation solution was a mix of mini-piles, due to tree root protection areas and mass concrete pad foundations. Reinforced concrete ground beams were used in the mini-pile area with mass concrete used elsewhere. The ground floor was constructed using a ground bearing reinforced concrete slab. The superstructure is a steel frame arrangement with composite concrete first floors and the external cladding is a mixture of composite cladding with stone faced masonry.
A sustainable surface drainage solution was utilised in line with the legislative requirements of the SAB authority by way of permeable paving, rain gardens and filter drains to treat the surface water incorporating SuDS features where possible.
A gabion retaining wall was used to retain the boundary of the site due to there being a level difference between the site and neighbouring properties.
Challenges on this project include incorporating sustainable drainage features on a tight site, working withing the tree root protection areas and working closely with the contractor and design team to a streamlined construction programme.
