Doran Consulting were the Civil & Structural designers for this new ambulance station hub, with associated staff and administrative facilities, district headquarters, garaging and car parking on the former Erne Hospital site in Enniskillen.
The building targeted a BREEAM Excellent rating. This was achieved through using innovative features such as a biomass boiler and LED lighting. The site presented a number of engineering challenges. Geotechnical investigation indicated that the site was underlain by various depths of fill material. A combination of piled and trench fill foundations were utilised for the building in response to the varying depths of poor ground.
The ground floor slab was formed in reinforced concrete, suspended between a ground beam arrangement. The superstructure is a braced box steel frame. The garage frame was constructed by using a clear span tapered truss to provide unrestricted vehicular access, while the administration area is framed using a series of simply supported beams.
A foul drainage collector system was provided, which ran around the perimeter of the new building. The new system has an outfall into the existing public foul sewer on the Cornagrade Road.
The fill material on the site meant that all below slab drainage had to be suspended from the floor slab. The storm drainage was collected through a storm network running around the perimeter of the new building and into an attenuation system, which is located below the visitor carpark. The new system has an outfall into a requisitioned sewer on Cornagrade Road.
The storm water emanating from all vehicular areas is processed by a petrol/oil interceptor before connecting to the sewer.
Photos courtesy of Todd Architects © Donal McCann Photography.