Howard Ward Associates

HWA have recently completed the design of two 60 bedroom hotels in Norwich and Mansfield for a major national client. The first is due on site shortly and the second is expected to go out to tender soon.

Although broadly similar in concept in terms of the superstructures of the buildings, each presented a slightly different technical challenge below ground. The Norwich site is in an area of chalky ground, with the possibility of hidden "solution features" below ground that could give rise to major foundation issues. We therefore commissioned a ground penetrating radar survey to produce an image of the material below the site. This avoided the need for large numbers of boreholes and crucially produced a considerable saving for our client. The radar survey thankfully confirmed that there were no major anomalies and the hotel foundations were therefore straightforward.

Initial enquiries indicated that the Mansfield hotel was in an area of made-up ground. A previous site investigation suggested however that the proposed building location might be just outside of the main area that was filled. We were therefore able to arrange a small supplementary site investigation to confirm this and hence design the majority of the hotel with simple, shallow and relatively cheap strip foundations.

We have further similar projects in the pipeline for the same client. We look forward to helping them deliver their expansion plans by continuing to provide best value engineering advice.