Lagan College, Belfast

Doran Consulting was appointed to provide civil, structural and traffic engineering advice for the Lagan College development, which saw both the construction of new and refurbishment of existing school buildings.

The project presented several challenges, including the fact that the existing college was located on a steeply sloping site adjacent to a watercourse and that the project had to be completed while keeping the existing school operational. This required complicated phasing and construction of key elements during the summer months.

The design of the new structures was complicated by the site topography and required the construction of retaining structures and stepped under-building. Site works that were required included a major out and fill earthworks exercise, formation of new access roads, a bus drop off point and car-parking facilities.

Following the full construction and refurbishment programme, the school now offers a major 2-storey steel framed classroom block and refurbished 4-storey classroom block, a new sports hall, new single storey science and music blocks and state-of-the-art outdoor sports facilities including a large grass pitch, a sand dressed synthetic hockey pitch and multi-use MUGA areas.

Doran were C&S design engineers as part of the Grahams PPP (Public Private Partnership) team for Lagan College. In 2014 this project won the CEF Construction Excellence Award in the Education Infrastructure category.