ABG has been listed as a key project contributor for this year’s Cultural & Leisure Project of the Year at NCE’s prestigious British Construction Industry Awards (BCIA). The awards are scheduled to take place on 28th October in London’s Grosvenor House Hotel and the shortlist can be viewed here.
The nomination is for the Wave inland surfing lake at Washingpool Farm near Bristol, a 200 x 200m wave pool with a capacity of over 20,000m3 of water. It features a pier that runs down the centre of the lake housing ‘Wavegarden Cove’ technology to provide over 1,000 waves an hour, allowing perfect surfing conditions all year round.
The site is close to the Severn Estuary and its floodplains, which meant extensive design work was required around the management of both ground and surface water. In places the water table is barely 145 mm below ground level, and with the water table so high, the design needed to take into consideration the potential ‘floatation’ of the concrete-lined wave pool when empty.
As part of the construction of the lake, ABG designed and supplied a groundwater drainage geocomposite system to isolate the lake from the groundwater and relieve pressure on the surf lake bed to prevent flotation. The drainage layer also acts to lower the water table beneath the pool (hydro-geologically mapped at 10 l/s flow).
A 6mm thick HDPE cuspated core product was used, providing a defined high-flow ground water drainage rate. The spaces between the cuspates give a clear passageway for water to flow in all directions, even in the event of localised blockages or damage. This also replaced the need for a separate 400gsm protection geotextile layer originally specified above the geocomposite, thus further saving on install time and cost.
ABG also provided permeable paving for over 3,000m² of access road and maintenance routes from the Washingpool Farm entrance to the surfing lake.
The light-weight permeable paving blocks are filled with free draining angular gravel to allow rainwater to percolate down to the existing sub-soil, ensuring that there will be no detrimental impact to flood risk either at the site or to third parties off-site.
Find out more about Truckcell permeable paving grids.
