The use of self-compacting concrete has significantly accelerated the construction of houses for the Ministry of Defence.
Using high-performance concrete for the slab flooring is enabling main contractor Lovell to build 346 new homes in just 11 months.
Lovell is building new accommodation for some of the 1,000 troops from the 16 Signal Regiment and 1 Armoured Division Signal Regiment that are relocating from Germany to a new £51m ‘super garrison’ development at Beacon Barracks in Staffordshire.
Groundwork subcontractor Chasetown used HopeFlow high-performance, self-compacting concretes to ensure that the build is being completed to a stringent timescale. Work started in August 2014 and is on course to be all complete by July 2015. Typically a build of this size would take between three and four years.
Hope Construction Materials supplied 12,500m3 of concrete for the build. HopeFlow performance products were used in a bid to speed construction, laying 20 slabs (and homes) per week as opposed to an average of four. By doing so, Chasetown was able to pour the slabs without the need of power floating, with slab construction time reduced by nearly 75%.
Throughout the build Hope supplied a total of 2,500m3 of HopeFlow concrete and 10,000m3 of conventional concrete, from its Four Ashes and Staffordshire concrete plants respectively. Conventional concrete was used to build the footings, drainage, curbing and road access.
Hope area commercial manager Paul Coleman said thst demand for high quality, quick-pour products was growing. “Since its launch the HopeFlow product has proven particularly popular and we are delighted to have used it on what was an important and substantial building initiative,” he said.
“This was a large-scale project and there was a real desire to complete the build quickly and professionally to ensure available housing when our troops return to Britain. We’re pleased that by using HopeFlow we vastly reduced the build time of the project to get the soldiers in their homes as soon as possible.”
Chasetown contract manager Kevin Pugh said: “We were working to particularly tight deadlines in order to ensure that the homes were ready for when the troops return home and HopeFlow has played a major role in being able to meet this demand due to its fast pouring time. This simply wouldn’t be possible without it.”
