Winchester Leisure Centre

Blanchard Wells played a crucial and pivotal role in the successful delivery of the Winchester Sports and Leisure Centre project. Our scope of works included a Section 278 agreement to re-route main services and create a new roundabout and entrance from the M3 into Winchester City Centre, as well as constructing four large swimming pools, including a 50m Olympic standard pool with a retractable floor built below ground water level, requiring sheet piling and injection grouting.

Our team provided valuable buildability advice, covering everything from groundwork and drainage to structural concrete and external works, which was instrumental in ensuring that the design was finalized to the highest standard before construction started on site. One of the most challenging aspects of the project was the construction of the competition pool, which had to be built to extremely fine tolerances to achieve Sport England certification. Despite these challenges, we were able to deliver a pool that met the highest standards.

The new sports centre boasts an impressive range of facilities, including a multi-use sports hall, a climbing facility, four squash courts with a movable wall for flexible use, treatment rooms, a fitness suite with 200 workout stations, two large studios, a spin studio, and a café. Perhaps most importantly, the sports centre includes a hydrotherapy suite that will serve the needs of people with disabilities in the local and wider community.

Thanks to the hard work of the entire project team, the sports centre was awarded BREEAM excellent accreditation. Our expertise and experience enabled us to improve the design of the project by changing the original deep suspended substructure, designed using planks and hung drainage, to ground-bearing slabs on tested imported chalk. This robust alternative eliminated the need for two large tower cranes and accelerated the program.

As a result of our outstanding performance on the Edenbrook Leisure Centre and Hoe Valley School projects, Willmott Dixon appointed us at RIBA Stage 3 for this project, allowing us to make a difference to the project’s design and deliver it ahead of schedule with zero defects. We completed the Final Account one week before the handover, and immediately moved onto our next project, Lucy Faithful House. Blanchard Wells is proud to have played a part in this achievement, and we look forward to contributing to future projects that make a positive impact on local communities.

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