An engineering, environmental, and planning consultancy’s expertise is playing a key role in the creation of “an elite sporting environment” for a professional football club with top-flight ambitions.
Bangor-based Caulmert has provided civil, structural, and geotechnical engineering design services for Stoke City’s new state-of-the-art training facility at Clayton Wood.
The Championship outfit is bidding to enhance its goal of returning to the Premier League by constructing a £12 million centre that will include a gymnasium, swimming pool, hydrotherapy and cryotherapy suites, offices and catering for all first-team staff, and a tactics room for video analysis.
Caulmert worked closely with AFL Architects and contractors Speller Metcalfe on the two-storey, 50m x 27m building, with completion scheduled by the end of 2025.
Associate structural engineer Ranjan Apputhurai is overseeing the project for Caulmert, which had a seven-strong team working on the scheme.
He said:
“We were involved in the extension to the existing training facility at Clayton Wood around a decade ago, so to be part of the new building is fantastic.
“It is going to be an impressive state-of-the-art centre for elite sports people to come to work every day, and it will be great to see the positive impact the investment will have on the pitch.
“The activity has included some important geotechnical investigations and reports that have been crucial to the installation of the swimming pool, which is to be positioned below ground in a basement area featuring hot and cold plunge tubs.
“The facility is to be built on land that has originally been used as a warm-up area. However, it has been prone to retaining water, so the ground surveys have played a key role in alleviating any potential problems.”
As work on the project began, Stoke City chairman John Coates told the club’s official website:
“We want to be more successful than we’ve ever been in the past. We realise that’s a very long-term aim with a lot of building blocks along the way to achieving that.
“This project is one of those building blocks starting to take shape, one that we believe will help create an elite sporting environment, will help us attract the right players at first team and academy level and will give our coaches the best environment in which to develop players and ultimately make us successful.”
Rob Lashford, director at Speller Metcalfe added:
“We're delighted to be working on creating a state-of-the-art facility at Stoke City Football Club’s training ground.
“Speller Metcalfe is committed to delivering fantastic facilities for grassroots players through to top-performance athletes, and this major development will have a lasting and positive impact on sport at the highest level, as well as inspiring younger players coming up through the ranks.
“This is a major development for the club, and we look forward to delivering a state-of-the-art facility that supports the players and the team.”
