Exceeding Standards

The Challenge

Creagh Demesne College was a €13 million Public Private Partnership (PPP) project to help deliver a new secondary school experience for students in Gorey, Co. Wexford.

The new college has external facilities, including six basketball courts, full sized pitches for Gaelic games, rugby and soccer and two five-a-side soccer pitches. The site had many changing levels – up to 10 metres in some areas – and this required the designers to incorporate retaining walls into the plans in order for the project to function as desired.

The Solution

In order to overcome the changing levels, AG suggested the use of its Anchor® Vertica® block to construct the retaining walls quickly and economically with 1,300m2 of product required.

Vertica® walls can be built to virtually any height in incredibly tight spaces thanks to built-in alignment locators and a near vertical rise for less excavation and land loss.

They are the perfect solution for steep, sloping sites and other structural problems.

“We offered the contractor a solution that was more cost-effective than the reinforced concrete wall that was planned and the school authority approved it. The finish was excellent and the speed of construction helped to make substantial savings on the work of up to €100,000. The Anchor® Vertica® block was chosen for its aesthetic properties and cost effectiveness. The speed of construction is a huge benefit on-site – it’s typically ‘cost neutral’ at a height of around 1.5 metres and makes savings the higher you build when compared to a reinforced concrete wall.”

Anthony Guinnessy | Maccaferri designer.