CBeebies land at Alton Towers

Mansell Finishes has helped create the UK’s only CBeebies Land Hotel featuring Postman Pat and In The Night Garden themed rooms developed for Merlin Entertainments’ Alton Towers Resort in Staffordshire. The new built hotel designed specifically for young families provides 76 family rooms including eight suites. In addition to the fully themed rooms and suites, the development also has a large 200 cover restaurant, kitchen, themed lifts, bar and entertainment space.

The Challenge:

• The hotel held an existing permission for an extension and the challenge was to convert this into a premium hotel offering while keeping revisions to the existing approval to a minimum.
• In addition to the 76 family rooms and eight suites, construction had to incorporate large open areas at ground floor level for leisure and entertainment facilities.
• The site, located within the highly popular Alton Towers Resort, plus challenging on-site logistics, required a high degree of logistical planning to ensure that materials were delivered to site as required and to minimise disruption.
• The timescales on the project were demanding and Mansell Finishes had to ensure a quick turnaround of its involvement in the project to ensure a timely handover to McGoff Construction.

The Solution:

• In order to meet the demanding timescales, Mansell Finishes proposed a Metsec Metframe Steel Framing System (SFS) and were appointed by McGoff Construction following a competitive tender.
• Mansell Finishes took a key role in the design phase of the project, with specialist input regarding the detailing of the Metframe, to help keep changes to existing permissions to a minimum.
• The structure of the hotel consists of strip footings with steel transfer deck installed to the ground floor that is then continued upwards, with over 8,000m² of Metframe installed to the upper levels including wall infill.
• Pre-panelisation of the frames was undertaken at Mansell Finishes’ production facility in Middleton, Manchester which were then delivered to site in the correct erection sequence at the exact moment they were needed using just in time deliveries.
• In addition to the Metframe, Mansell Finishes’ works also included 4,200m² of ceilings, 18,500m² of plastering and 30,000m² of drylining.

The Benefits:

• Minimal changes to existing permissions, due to Mansell Finishes’ design input, helped to ensure a speedier turnaround of the project.
• The amount of time spent erecting the frame was reduced by 30% as the pre-panelised Metframe was delivered to site to the exact specification.
• The use of just-in-time delivery methods reduced the amount of deliveries to site, a key requirement due to the Alton Towers Resort being open at the time of development.
• Mansell Finishes is one of Metsec’s Approved Installers and this close working partnership was crucial to the success of this installation.
• The SFS solution effectively delivered zero waste on site and overall waste was reduced by 25% over the build.
• A decrease in weight of over 70%, compared to traditional on-site construction, resulted in a significantly reduced transportation impact.
• Mansell Finishes completed their works on time ensuring a timely handover to McGoff Construction and the hotel opened on time in July 2017.

Commenting on the project Mike Foy, Commercial Director at Mansell Finishes said: “This is a showcase development in the leisure sector and we’re immensely proud of what we helped to achieve on this project. The timescales were challenging but we helped to take control of many of the variables on the project. We are also proud of the portfolio of services we were able to offer on-site in addition to our frame expertise, and this joined up approach helped to strongly contribute to delivering the project on time to enable the new hotel to open as planned.”

Project overview: