New modular school opens in Peterborough

Article posted on: 1 October 2022

Doors open at St John Henry Newman School, the new modular-built 630-pupil Catholic primary school in Peterborough.

The first state-funded Catholic school in England in over 10 years is made up of 109 modular sections and was constructed off-site by Eco Modular Buildings before being transported to site for installation.

We provided transport, pre-planning, geoenvironmental and flood risk advice to Peterborough City Council and Eco Modular Buildings at the early stages of the scheme.

Divisional Director Nick Riding, who led the Clancy geoenvironmental team, stated “This was a challenging scheme due to the site’s historical land use.

“The area was formerly a brickworks which had been left at a lower level than surrounding areas resulting in large portions of the site being semi-permanently under water. This made obtaining meaningful site investigation data problematic. In addition, the brickworks were filled with up to 20m of highly compressible pulverised fuel ash (PFA) waste which isn’t great for constructing foundations. We used a combination of techniques to obtain the information needed for planning purposes and inform foundation, civil and structural design. These included investigations in drier parts of the site using window sampling and trial pitting with a tracked Cone Penetration Testing (CPT) rig utilised in the waterlogged areas. The CPT rig was able to penetrate beyond the base of the PFA waste and obtain detailed geotechnical data from the underlying natural strata for foundation design.

“It’s always good to be involved in challenging projects, but even more so when they are at the forefront of achieving carbon net zero in construction and when they provide immediate real-world benefit to local communities.”

By supporting the council’s bid to be carbon neutral by 2030, the use of modular construction has decreased waste, reduced working time on site and reduced site traffic in the local area.

The infant classes opened in time for the new academic year starting in September 2022.

Once fully open in 2023, the school will offer 90 places in every year group.