Rokeby Developments Northern Limited
Facts and figures
- Homebase store area of 24,000 sq ft and 12,239 sq ft mezzanine
- Halfords store area of 7,500 sq ft
- Ouseburn Point comprises of 6,000 sq ft of retail accommodation and 6,180 sq ft of office accommodation
Interserve undertook the construction of Homebase and Halfords retail shops, located in Northallerton, as well as the design and build of a two-storey retail and commercial development in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on behalf of Rokeby Developments Northern Limited.
Halfords and Homebase stores construction
The £3.5 million-project, completed in December 2007 within a tight 32-week programme, included the creation of new car parking facilities, associated hard standing areas and Section 278 works on Willowbeck Road leading up to the stores.
The site contained an existing dilapidated timber workshop and miscellaneous large concrete bases. The asbestos within the existing building was removed, demolition took place and then the levels across the site were reduced.
The stores were built on piled pre-cast foundations with steelwork frame, brick and block walls and were insulated with Kingspan cladding and roofing panels. Internally, Interserve constructed back of house offices and welfare facilities.
Achievements
- The site is in close proximity to a river, which was liable to flooding. We built a temporary bund adjacent to the river and monitored the levels on a daily basis. As a permanent solution we installed some attenuation pipework below ground.
- Minimal disruption to neighbouring secondary school
- The challenging site location, adjacent to the East Coast main railway line, meant we reviewed the risks for any works adjacent to the railway line or within its vicinity and worked closely with Network Rail to agree the best time to undertake such works. For example, we resurfaced the high street leading to a rail crossing early on a Sunday morning and installed a traffic management system to control the flow of traffic to minimise disruption on a busy street.
Ouseburn Point, Shields Road
The £1.47 million project, is part of a Development Agreement between Rokeby Developments and Newcastle City Council, and comprises six individual retail units to the ground floor and two open plan office units to the first floor. One of the offices is now Interserve's Newcastle Office.
A steel-framed building with piled foundations, precast concrete ground beams (par), precast concrete ground floor, cladding and brickwork external walls, clad roof and precast concrete upper floors.
Achievements
As a 15m length of the foundation of Hadrian's Wall runs under the footprint of the building, the project involved liaison with English Heritage and archaeologists from Tyne & Wear Museums to ensure that the wall was not disturbed.
Restrictions were placed on both the design and construction methodologies to avoid any damage to this ancient Roman antiquity.
The site team produced detailed phasing plans for the substructure works as no plant was allowed above Hadrian's Wall, which was a challenge in a very restricted site.
The building has been designed to carry the foundation of the development above the line of the surviving remains of the Wall, so that they are preserved.
