Limebrook Way Primary School

As part of the newly built South Maldon Garden Suburb development in Essex, the team have constructed a new 420-place primary school and 56 place nursery. In readiness for the September 2024 term, part of the wider scope of works required a new sports pitch along with playing fields for the students.

Key Stats

420 place school in a new community
Net Zero Carbon in Operation and diesel free site
CCS Silver Award
290.4T carbon saved throughout the project
Delivered on time and budget
9/10 customer satisfaction

At a Glance

Client

Essex County Council

Budget

£12m

Completion

August 2024

Location

Maldon, Essex

Framework

ECCF2

Sector

Education, Primary

Social value

84 apprentice weeks

Sustainability

290T of carbon saved throughout the project

Our Approach

The new primary school supplements the equally new and developing community in Maldon, where a total of 1,000 homes will be built. Required to alleviate pressures on other local schools, the Limebrook Way Primary School has become an education hub in the heart of this new community.

Limebrook Way Primary School is a steel framed building, with neutral pastel colours designed to be sympathetic to its environment, as per the planning conditions. A piled raft slab was installed in the ground using piles reaching a depth of 20m. Although the site prior to construction was greenfield, there was some difficulty within the ground particularly displaying dissolution features within the soil. As such, through collaboration with the structural engineers (Ingleton Wood), the team opted for the piled raft solution due to its bearing capacity and greater stability within the soil.

Opting for Bamtec slab reinforcement to save time

The project team moved away from using traditional slab reinforcement systems and opted for Bamtec reinforcement technology. Bamtec is swifter and a more efficient slab reinforcement system which comes as a roll out bar. Bamtec slab reinforcement comes with many advantages, such as, having equivalent quality to other systems while saving on materials. However crucially, the use of Bamtec saved the project team roughly 2 weeks on the programme due to its ease of use.

Limebrook Primary School Maldon Large 053

Saving 290T Carbon

Morgan Sindall Construction aspire to achieve Net Zero by 2030 which aligns with Essex County Councils aim to achieve this by 2050. As a result, the project team explored innovative ways to reduce the carbon impact of the project, whether that’s the operational impact or embodied impact.

The Limebrook Way project was a diesel-free site, utilising responsibly sourced, palm oil free HVO fuel as an alternative to traditional white diesel. This not only reduced carbon emissions by over 90%, but also increased air quality for workers on site and residents.

The team explored other innovative ways to reduce the carbon impact of the project of which resulted in saving over 290T of Carbon. This was achieved by:

Setting up our site welfare sustainably, saving 11T
Procuring steel produced in sustainable Electric Arc Furnaces (EAF), saving 74T
Using a cement-replacement material (GGBS) in the concrete for the piled foundations, saving 69T
Using low-waste steel reinforcement in the ground floor slab, saving - 52T
Specifying lower energy kitchen equipment to reduce running costs and operational carbon emissions, saving 83.7T

Social Value Impact

The project team hosted a steel signing ceremony for the project, to commemorate a key milestone for the project. At the event, Local MP Sir John Whittingdale, Essex County Council (ECC), main contractor Morgan Sindall Construction, construction consultancy Ingleton Wood and newly appointed trust, the Lion Academy Trust, celebrated the progress that has been made since planning consent was achieved in January 2023, with the project starting onsite in May 2023. During the event, attendees were invited to ceremoniously sign one of the development’s steel beams.