Plans for a £70m masterplan to improve education provision in the city at Exeter College have been unanimously approved by Exeter City Council. A separate detailed application for the first phase of the masterplan, a new Digital and Data Hub, has also been approved.
The masterplan will deliver new entrance gardens, landscaped courtyards and a new spine running through the campus that will improve pedestrian links between St David’s Station and the city centre.
The transport team designed a safety scheme for Hele Road, including two new pedestrian crossing points and a pedestrian/cycle refuge within the carriageway to allow safer crossing and a pedestrian crossing on Howell Lane at the College’s access point. These schemes were designed to create a safer environment for active travel users.
Clarkebond’s ground engineering and flood management engineers have been involved in the application for the new Digital and Data Hub which will see a three-storey extension to the existing Hele Building. This is part of a south west bid for an Institute of Technology, which is in the final phases of funding approval.
Clarkebond produced a Flood Risk Assessment (FRA) and Drainage Strategy (DS) to support the masterplan. Whilst the site is within Flood Zone 1, the FRA and DS also covered the IoT development in more detail, giving particular attention to the detailed planning of the drainage routing, storage volumes and flow controls for this area of the site.
The remainder of the drainage for the wider site focussed on the types and potential locations of potential surface water management items (including SuDS) with indicative ‘worst case’ sizing for final attenuation features given to aid the identification of space requirements prior to detailed design.