DIO provides new accommodation at Europe’s biggest residential driving school
The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) will this month complete the last of 4 new accommodation blocks at the Defence School of Transport (DST) at Leconfield in east Yorkshire.
Soldiers training on the Coyote vehicle at the Defence School of Transport at Leconfield, east Yorkshire
Building and outfitting the 4 blocks, which will provide modern, state of the art accommodation for 768 personnel, was challenging because the school, which trains around 20,000 MOD personnel a year, had to keep running throughout the project.
This required a whole site planning approach to ensure that the £28 million project, which included the installation of underground infrastructure and the demolition of old accommodation blocks as well as the construction of the new blocks, did not disrupt the heavy training workload of the school.
DIO Project Manager Mike Reynolds said:
By working closely with our customers at the school we were able to develop a phased approach which moved service personnel into each new block as it was completed, allowing us to demolish the old blocks as we went along.
This project is a great example of how DIO works with our armed forces to enhance defence capability, support our troops and deliver an outstanding service to defence and the taxpayer.
DST commandant Col Rob Peacock said:
I have been extremely impressed with the flexible way in which DIO initially approached and then executed this project, which allowed the school to run at full operating capacity throughout the 2 years it has taken to complete, and even delivered 2 of the new blocks ahead of schedule.
DST Leconfield is one of the schools that make up the Defence College of Logistics Policing and Administration. It is a tri-service establishment which is the centre of excellence for wheeled driver training for defence and provides 150 different courses, including the 60 ton Kalmar RT240 rough terrain container handler. The school provides licence acquisition and driver training for all categories from cars to all large goods vehicles and coaches, as well as training for logistics officers, driving examiners and instructors.