The Construction of Academic Wing Phase II – an update from the Home Bursar

Two months on from our first update and work on the construction of the Academic Wing Phase II is progressing well.

Project Progress

Over the past two months much of the work on site has been preparing the ground for, and installing, the pile foundations. This has included the removal of some very large old foundation pads that we think may have supported a crane used in the construction of the main building in the 1970s.

With these, the foundations of the old bike shed, and the last of the old granite sets removed the site was ready for the installation of the pile foundations.

The Pile Foundations and Ring Beam

The ground under the new building is made up largely of a layer of Oxford Blue Clay, a layer of sand, and then more clay. These ground conditions do not provide very suitable support for a building such as the Academic Wing and so, to increase the ground-bearing support, large concrete piles are driven into the ground to a depth of up to 15m. The building is supported on 52 of the pile foundations and these are connected together by a reinforced concrete ring beam which, along with the concrete floor slab, provides the support for the rest of the building.

The large square box at the far end of the building you can see in the second image is the shaft for the new lift with the concrete stairs wrapped around it.

As you can see in photographs 3 and 4, work on the ring beam is now over 50% complete and the box section at the front of photo 3 is the shuttering that forms the base of the lift shaft. The trench that runs through the middle of the building is a new duct that will carry the mechanical and electrical services between Phase I and the main building. In the top right of photo 4 you can see the foundations for the new lobby and entrance door into the new quad area.

A Block North Wing

The North Wing of A Block has now been completely stripped out and some of the new partitions have been inserted to allow the electrical and mechanical services to be installed.

What happens next?

Over the next few weeks the aim is to complete the ground beam and pour the concrete floor slab. At the end of January we should have a crane in place to help with all the lifting and shifting. The crane will be electrically powered to reduce noise and will remain in place for a number of months.