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Castlemartin range observation tower scoops award

Castlemartin Range Tower | Jubb

State of the art range observation tower at Castlemartin, named Small Project of the year at Jubb company awards.

Led by Martin Finlay, Jubb provided the Civil and Structural design for the range tower on Castlemartin Training Area, which is part of the UK Defence Training Estate located within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in Wales and covers over 6,000 acres.

The delivery of the state-of-the-art tower and subsequent future upgrades to the site are vital for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), ensuring Castlemartin remains a central military training site for years to come.

The tower provides a modern facility perfect for operations in the often-challenging conditions of southwest Wales. Comprised of three floors, with access and toilet facilities at ground level, a large ‘viewing space’ on the first floor and a control room located on the top floor. The roof space houses communication aerials and solar panels, as well as an additional viewing external area.

The building has been constructed with in situ external concrete walls and floors which form a stable and robust structure to suit both its use and environment it sits in. A concrete raft foundation was utilised to suit the ground conditions. Internally the blockwork walls have been painted and sealed concrete floors provide hard wearing surfaces. The thermal performance was achieved with insulation between the external and inner leaf and also to the soffit of the concrete roof.

The windows have been positioned to gain maximum views down the range and were specified to give suitable protection to the military from both the weather and vibrations from external firing.

The Range Tower achieved a ‘DREAM’ rating of Excellent (Defence Related Environmental Assessment Methodology). Energy-saving solutions incorporated into the design, such as the solar panels, raised the carbon efficiency of the building and contributed to this rating.

Despite challenges during the pandemic which hindered aspects of the project, the building is now complete, and work has now begun on another tower at Range Five planned to commence later this quarter.

Major John Poole, Senior Training Safety Officer at Castlemartin, ​who worked closely with the team on this project, described the new tower as “superb”. He ​said, “it now offers visiting units a much more modern environment to operate within. With all the technical advances the British Army is seeing, ​troops bring lots of extra equipment with ​them and this needs space.” ​He also said, “the tower also provides an excellent facility to hold daily conferences or debriefs.”

Project Team

Project Manager             Landmarc Support Services

Lead Designer                Jubb Consulting

Structural Consultant   Jubb Consulting

Drainage Consultant     Jubb Consulting

Architect                          Bailey Partnership

Utilities Consultant        Bailey Partnership

DREAM Assessor           Eco Doodle

Contractor                       Trueform