Chelmsford & Colchester Magistrates Courts.

Double the challenge.

The Chelmsford & Colchester Magistrates Courts service the city of Chelmsford, the market town of Colchester, and the wider community. These two new-build developments feature courtrooms, interview rooms, jury and judge rooms, and custody suites.

Parallel schedules.

A key challenge on the project came from the fact that each development had a design and construction schedule that ran in parallel with the other. Working with Galliford Try on the design and build delivery, we also focused on achieving the sustainability aims of the client, utilising wood-pellet biomass boilers linked to absorption chillers to service each scheme. Upon completion, both courts achieved a BREEAM Courts 2008 Excellent rating.  

Sound of success.

Our Acoustics team brought its expertise to both projects, developing acoustic models of the courtrooms. These allowed us to check if the proposed locations and type of acoustic treatment in the rooms were suitable to comply with S28 reverberation time criteria. Pre-completion testing demonstrated full compliance with S28 airborne, impact, reverberation time, and internal noise levels.