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Contaminated ground and gas venting added complications to work on Derby's Multi-sports Arena.
Industrial dumping site
Piling through contaminated ground
Clean air blanket
Steel frame catches the eye
Laying the wooden track
Scheme Derby Multi-sports Arena
Client Derby City Council
Main contractor Bowmer & Kirkland
Contract value £28m
Architect FaulknerBrowns
Geoenvironmental consultant Idom Merebrook
Piling subcontractor BBGE
Steelwork subcontractor Billington Structures
Derby is steeped in history as a manufacturing and engineering powerhouse and the automotive, railway and aeronautical engineering industries have all helped put their mark on this patch of the East Midlands.
Now, a section of former railway sidings and waste tip to the east of the city centre is helping build its profile.
In the mid-1990s, huge amounts of money were invested in regenerating that industrial wasteland, reinventing it as business park that would attract the next wave of investment to the city.
Anchored by Derby County Football Club, the Pride Park business centre has become a byword for successful regeneration.
Now Derby City Council is looking to reinforce that success by developing an iconic multi-use sports centre alongside the existing Pride Park stadium.
Being built by locally based contractor Bowmer & Kirkland, the facility is one of the UK's first Olympic legacy projects and will include a 250 m indoor cycling velodrome which can be converted into a 5,000-capacity concert arena.
The £28m scheme is supported by a slice of £3m of funding granted to Derby City Council by Sport England through its Iconic Facilities Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Fund.
As a local contractor, it was a project Bowmer & Kirkland was keen to win.
"There's no doubt that it is going to be a major addition to the city and we wanted to be part of its delivery," says Bowmer & Kirkland regional director Neil Brook.Industrial dumping site
Even before the B&K team had tendered for the design-and-build scheme, it put in a huge amount of upfront work on developing a strategy for the full investigation of potential contamination of the site.
"We knew that work carried out during the original regeneration had included the installation of a bentonite cut-off barrier wall to help manage water flow and that landfill gases were being vented"Neil Brook, Bowmer & Kirkland
For many...