40


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© Clague


with an education, such as Tymal Mills, a rising cricket star for Essex County Cricket Club and England’s U-19 side. Mills also went on a tour of the Caribbean with the England Lions squad last Christmas and combines his sporting activities with study- ing for a degree in sports journalism at UEL. Members of the British basketball team that hope to compete


at the 2012 Olympics in Stratford, Paralympic power lifter Ali Jawad, international rower John Collins and Djo Lema, the UK mixed martial arts champion, were all present for the start cere- mony and since then, the main challenge for the construction team has been time – or lack of it. Known throughout UEL as the Tear Drop, owing to its shape,


the 17,720 sq m site needed to be surveyed for unexploded World War II ordnance. That did not produce any tears but 700 con- crete piles had to be driven into a site with complicated levels. Codd adds: “The biggest pain was setting the levels so early in


the project as we still had a lot to get through in terms of design and building regulations. It was not the most stable ground in the world, that’s why we stabilised the top of the ground and punched through with the piles.”


The Docklands Light Railway stops outside UEL at Cyprus,


separating the university from the main Sports Dock site, but students will be able to approach the south entrance of the Sports Dock by walking under the DLR. Clague partner Lee Batten says: “It’s a complex scheme


because of the levels. We’ve got to be able to go under the DLR then into the south entrance for the students, then up to a pub- lic entrance on the north side. That’s why the design features a street through the centre.” The building also needs to be at least 5 m away from the DLR


itself and that was not the only transport-related obstacle. The site sits across the water of Albert Dock from London City Airport and that restricted Denne’s choice of plant. “We can only use a certain height crane or it shows up on their


radar,” explains Codd. “There’s a restriction on the gib height as their radar is a continuous sweep. As long as we had the head room, we could use a crane but it couldn’t enter into that zone.” An early fall of winter snow cost the construction team a few


lost days before Christmas on a project that was already on a fast- track. A steel frame was specified due to time-scale – “to do in-


continued on page 43


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