Case study: Etches Park, Derby

Background:-
HBPW Consulting travelled to one of the traditional train building centres of Britain to help in the construction of a maintenance unit for East Midlands Trains. Etches Park near Derby was the site for the impressive new facility.

Challenge
The area has a railway heritage with foundation structures including locomotive turntables, but the site also had contaminated ground, which delivered its own challenges for engineers.

Solution
HBPW Consulting worked with C Spencer to overcome the various issues. The main building now comprises a 26m x 180m portal frame shed with a 10 tonne overhead travelling crane. The main shed has three roads, two of which provide pits for maintenance of the underside of trains, with the remaining road made with strengthened slabs for the purpose of “jacking” trains and other heavy duty maintenance equipment.

A two-storey storage and accommodation building is attached to the main structure and a smaller separate building sits adjacent to the main one, housing a wheel lathe. This required a pit of four metres depth below ground level before it could be constructed courtesy of complicated geometry!