Severn Quay, Chepstow
Bear were appointed to provide civil and structural design consultancy services for Phase 3 of the Severn Quay housing development in Chepstow.
Phase 3 comprises of 25 Total plots of 3 and 4 bedroom three storey houses split into 2No. 8 plot terraces and 3No. 3 plot Terraces.
The site is located just off Lower Church Street and is in between the A48 / Network rail railway line and the river Wye. The former use of the site was a gas works and a mixture of industrial units. Phase 3 is located in the non-gas works area.
Whilst the site had planning approval, we had to satisfy the planning requirements for our site in terms of procuring additional survey work. This included additional Geotechnical Ground Investigation works, site remedial strategy, Topographical survey, underground utility services survey and drainage CCTV survey work.
In terms of our structural engineering design for the project, the due to the ground conditions, the sub-structure comprised a precast concrete driven piled solution with reinforced concrete ground beams below all loadbearing wall lines. The ground floor solution was a suspended beam and block floor. The superstructure design was constructed using light gauge steelwork which was a specialist’s design.
We also undertook the structural design for some of the above ground elements namely; dormer windows, parapets, Juliet balcony fixings, lintels and water tank supports within the building.
Our Civil engineering design was challenging as the previous phases were undertaken by others which resulted in us having to fully understand what work had been undertaken to date including drainage and highways section agreements. To do this we had to re-model the existing drainage system to be able to produce our own design for the new phase. We also undertook the external works design and highways design along with a cut and fill exercise.
