Holiday Inn Express, Bridgwater, UK

A new 138-bedroom Holiday Inn Express has rapidly taken shape just outside Bridgwater hitting its milestone topping out in just six months. The £10 million project which is built by Midas Construction on behalf of customer Zeal Hotels, has used off-site and modular construction techniques allowing for a considerably shorter build time.

The new Bridgwater Holiday Inn Express is situated on Junction 24 of the M5 motorway and will be one of the biggest hotels in the area, featuring a bar and restaurant, lounge area, meeting rooms and parking for more than 60 vehicles. Just marked completion in spring 2019, the hotel will provide accommodation for visitors to the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station and surrounding areas. The five-storey hotel will follow a typical Holiday Inn Express design with a mixture of white, grey and dark colours.

The windows, made by a specialist company in Bristol, are pre-glazed and installed into the pre-cast panels before being delivered to site. The build was constructed using a structural frame of twin wall pre-cast concrete, positioned on top of a steel transfer structure at first floor level with supporting columns and piles. The foundations of the building are driven piles 350mm diameter due to the poor ground conditions, especially where there was a pond in the past. The RC ground floor slab is suspended from RC beams that are supported by the pile caps.

The facade walls support their self-weight and wind load. Externally, the car park consists of a sustainable urban design solution utilizing Form pave tanked attenuation system with foul drainage connections to existing. The roof structure was fabricated off-site and consisted of a steelwork modular clad system formed with trusses at 1.5m centres. The modular panels were delivered to site in 7m sections.

As a result, we have market leading knowledge of current practice, design methods and costs/time effective construction techniques. Having gained that depth of experience, we have been involved in using many alternative types of structural solutions for hotel construction.

Each type of hotel design and each site presents its own specific challenges, which influence the selection of the most appropriate design solution. Frequently several options need to be explored before the most appropriate is selected. Common factors include the need for bedrooms with party walls, restaurants & conference facilities, and leisure facilities often with swimming pools.

Our experience of using different forms of construction to suit the specific requirements of hotel design is significant. We use that experience to ensure that cost-effective structural solutions are adopted and that effective co-ordination takes place between the design team.

The main consideration when preparing a structural design of bedrooms is the presence of the bedroom party walls. We find that the most sensible structural solution is to use the loadbearing party walls. Once hotels are completed most guests should gain little impression of the fabric of the building, unless the design has been specifically making the structural solution an exposed feature.

Our most successful projects have been where we have established a good relationship with the contractor at the earliest possible stage and maintained these throughout the project. We believe in delivering our structural solution, drawings, design and construction details to the contractor as soon as possible.

Tim Wheeldon, Zeal Hotels’ Managing Director, said: “We are thrilled to open this hotel and provide some much-needed accommodation for the area. This new Holiday Inn Express Generation 4 hotel provides quality up-to-date facilities aimed at both the business and leisure markets at a competitive price.

“We appointed South West-based Midas Construction and are pleased to report the project was completed both on time and on budget. Utilising local workforce is a pre-requisite and I was particularly pleased to see Midas employing local apprentices and encouraging students to visit the site. Project Manager Neil Lewis is very hands on and his attention to detail ensured a high quality of finish which, I am pleased to say, is already being noticed by our guests.”

The hotel was built to Holiday Inn Express Group’s Generation 4 specifications and the Midas team used innovative construction techniques and a highly efficient form of offsite and modular construction to deliver a high-quality finish in a considerably shorter build time.

The team worked closely with customer Zeal Hotels throughout the duration of the build. Neil Lewis, Project Manager for Midas Construction, said: “We were so pleased to celebrate the completion of the build with our customer Zeal Hotels. The new hotel looks fantastic and we’re really proud of the finished product and the way in which we were able to incorporate innovative construction techniques into the construction process.

“This Holiday Inn Express will bring added benefits to the region, providing accommodation for visitors to Bridgwater and the surrounding areas.”

Such was the success of the project that Midas Construction has been recently appointed to complete another new hotel build in the area on behalf of Zeal Hotels.