Case Study | Woodborough School | Disaster Response…
When Woodborough Primary School in Wiltshire was badly damaged by a fire recently, Portable Offices’ Bristol office responded to the challenge for immediate accommodation for the affected pupils.
The fire at the school, which has 160 pupils aged from 4 to 11, broke out in the oldest part of its buildings, which date back to the Victorian era.
The blaze devastated classrooms, toilets and the staff room and resulted in the closure of the school for a week while the other buildings were checked for safety.
Once the school was made safe, pupils usually accommodated in the damaged classrooms were temporarily relocated to the hall.
This was perceived to be less than ideal and pressure was on to find and install temporary mobile units.
Mark White, Senior Building Surveyor of SDBF Building Consultancy, who oversaw the installation, said:
“We secured tenders and opted for Portable Offices – a company we had used previously.
“They responded quickly and dealt with all the groundworks and access issues, even securing permission from the railways as it was necessary to cross the line with the crane and installation machinery.
“We were very impressed with the way they performed on site. It was tight access for the lorries but the crane driver was amazing in positioning the sections.”
The portable buildings, which provide accommodation for two classrooms, a staff room, toilets and washroom, are on hire for six months while the devastated buildings are rebuilt.
Mark White continued: “The installation was completed in around two weeks and the portable buildings are nice, comfortable spaces – in fact the classrooms are better than the existing mobile buildings at the school.”
Kate Kirk, Manager of Portable Offices’ Bristol office commented: “We pride ourselves on keeping a number of units in a state of readiness.
“The enquiry came to us on Friday 24th September with the order being placed by the client on Friday October 1st and delivered to site on Friday October 8th and handover a week later on the 15th. It was a superb result for the school, enabling a full education programme to be reintroduced within an optimum timeframe.”
Portable Offices remains fully committed to finding product and service solutions for existing and new customers.
Read the story on BBC News
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