Tetra Tech’s multidisciplinary team of experts supported the Northern Ireland Department of Education’s flagship project to relocate five post-primary schools and one special school onto one brownfield site for Strule Shared Education Campus.
Built atop a former army barracks in the town centre, the site was redeveloped to provide shared educational and sporting facilities (including 16 natural turf and 4G football sports pitches) for up to 4,000 students.
The relocating schools include the Christian Brothers Grammar School, Loreto Grammar School, Omagh Academy Grammar School, Omagh High School, and Sacred Heart College.
Starting in late 2015, Tetra Tech lead the integrated consultancy team, including the lead architects at Kennedy Fitzgerald Architects, in providing a range of in-house consultancy services:
- Project and Cost Management
- Asset Management
- CDM
- Planning
- Civil, Structural, Mechanical, Electrical and Bridge Engineering
- Environmental: BREEAM, Flood Risk Assessment, Geo-Environmental and Ecology
- Facilities Management
- BIM Level 2 delivery
- Circulation Analysis
- Accessibility Analysis
- Information Management
Collaborative working
To align resources on this major project, the strategy saw the full design delivery team working under one roof, including KFA and the employer’s technical advisory team. Together, they worked out of the design hub at Tetra Tech’s Belfast office, where we actively promoted an ethos of wider design team collaboration to ensure the project was delivered to programme requirements.
Using Virtual Reality to augment public engagement
Outlines, schematics, and illustrations can only tell part of the story, though. After our planning application gained approval in late 2016, the Department of Education needed an exciting way to engage with the general public and demonstrate the true merits of this unique project, To do this, we used Virtual Reality technology to help create an elaborate 3D showcase, taking members of the public on a fly-through journey into the campus and its facilities.
Influence across Omagh and beyond
The development represents a vital cornerstone in Northern Ireland’s future, enriching a shared society built around respect, equality and diversity.
Strule will make a huge impact on Omagh and the wider district. It has been designed to encourage cohesion and partnership through individual schools cooperating to create a vibrant, dynamic campus where learning through shared experiences enhances the quality of education for all.
The campus also includes a Shared Education Centre, Shared Sports Centre, and Shared Sports Pavillion, with further external facilities like four floodlit synthetic pitches, eight multi-function grass pitches, running tracks, and extensive resource areas.
