Acklam
Base
Schools
FROM
This project is planned as a couple
of buildings forming two 8-formentry
students aged 11 to 16 years and
the first stage of this development
so far erected and occupied serves
1,800 students.
Each school, with an upper
and lower school, has the
shared facilities of a sports
block containing two gymnasia,
a teaching swimming pool
and a sports hall along with
the communal use of the base
playing fields. They will eventually
share in the second stage of
the development, a hexagonally
shaped drama theatre with
an associated closed-circuit
television studio. The latter will
be the hub of a system which,
alongside the national circuits, will
enable programmes to be mounted
from a number of specialist areas
within the complex.
The upper schools have been
planned to provide for the full
operation of a ‘house system’
where pastoral care and corporate
feeling may be achieved with
30 NSC
secondary schools for 2,400
Feb 20
the smaller grouping of students
who have opted to continue their
studies at these schools rather
than transfer at the age of 13
to one of the high schools for
continued study through the 6th
form courses.
The poor site conditions of siltysandy
substrata with a high water
table necessitated the use of the
well-point dewatering system for
the construction of foundations
and the erection the swimming
pool above ground level rather
than as an excavated construction.
The 70ft high over flue stack from
the central boiler house consists
of a glass fibre casing stiffened
by an internal steel lattice frame
considerably reducing the ground
load. Roofs generally are decked
with 3in channel reinforced wood
wool slabs which, to single storey
buildings and the top floor of 2, 3
and 4 storey blocks are left exposed
and decorated. These, along with
the relatively light-weight concrete
upper floors and insulated steel
section curtain walling, have
contributed to the necessary aim
of reducing foundation loading.
At an early stage, the decision
was made to use steel floor beams
designed to act compositely with
the 4in deep precast floor units.
Insitu concrete filling local to the
beam made the necessary solid
section for composite action.
Using the ultimate load design
method from BS Code of Practice
CP117 Part I, it was found that
a 16in beam could generally be
adopted for spans of up to 34ft.
Stud connectors ¾in diameter
by 3in long, averaging 7½in
centres, with ⅜in bar transverse
reinforcement ensured adequate
shear connection between steel
and concrete.
A cost saving was achieved
by using more composite
construction compared with a
more orthodox stanchion and
beam construction with bearers.
A further bonus is the much stiffer
floor support resulting, as the
moment of inertia on the combined
Tee beam is nearly three times that
of the plain steel member.
Stanchions were composed of
6in × 6in or 7in × 7in box sections
built up from 6in × 3in and 7in ×
3½in channels welded toe to toe.
The welded faces were dressed
flush in the transverse plane of the
building giving a very satisfactory
visual result.
Where steelwork remains
exposed internally it was important
that the connections should be
clean and neat, free of bolt heads
and nuts. A simple vertical plate
connection welded to the column
face was used and the webs of the
floor beams were site welded to
the plate.
A suspended ceiling was
necessary in the science blocks
to accommodate the considerable
quantity of services in the
steel beam depth. Beams were
planned to be of castellated type
to ensure sufficient points for
access through them. In the event
it proved cheaper to use solid
universal beams with 8in diameter
holes at 22in centres burnt out of
the webs. This had the advantage
of leaving a solid web where
dictated by the stress conditions
Building
with Steel
February 1970
Despite poor site conditions and the need to
incorporate many types of accommodation these
two schools at Middlesborough were built within
DES cost limits while exceeding their minimum area
requirements. The economy is at least partly due to
the adoption of the steel-concrete design as described
by Mr K J Caton ARIBA, Assistant Borough Architects
(Education), Teeside Authority and Mr R Stainsby DIC,
C(Eng), FIStructE, Chief Designer, Teeside Bridge and
Engineering Ltd.
50 Years Ago
School blocks and the boiler house flue stack associated with the sports block