Vistry Partnerships – Goddard Street, Crewe

Site Clearance, Earthworks, S278, Attenuation, Sewer connections, Foundations

Project scale and detail of works undertaken.

The project at Goddard Street consists of the groundworks and drainage package for the mixed site comprising of 1 & 2 bedrooms apartment within the Independent Living unit as well as 31 houses.

We started work in September 2022 and we are completing the first phase of work. A second phase of work is planned for the autumn of 2023 for all finishing external works

Our scope of works:

  • Site clearance
  • Cut and fill to level with 8000m3 of material going off site
  • Drainage and ducting including a connection for the surface water under the Dundywood Way roundabout where the road has to remain open at all times
  • Attenuation tank
  • Attenuation within the carriageway pipe (900mm & 1050mm concrete diameter pipes) with associated manholes
  • Concrete foundations.
  • Car park installation
  • Pavings & finishing works

Infrastructure works started early to allow access to the site and the delivery for the other trades.

The good clay ground facilitated the installation of the 200m length of concrete pipes to attenuate all the adopted highways drainage before slow release into the network. At the deepest manhole S6 was 3.6m deep from cover level.

All carriageway drainage is to be adopted by United Utilities and periodic visits have been taken place by United Utility inspector through the scheme to ensure UU Standard were met.

Bespoke Solutions

Due to the constraints of the 225 mm surface water connection to the mains, we had to implement new methods of works to minimize the disruption to the existing cobble street as well as installing the new asset 3m deep under the roundabout on Dundywood Way without closing the carriageway.

For this works, we decide to implement a tunneling method where we dug pits at 50m distance and used a tunnel boring rig to go from one pit to the next. It took 6 weeks to complete after encountering a number of obstructions in the old Crew Works factory (roundabout area).

Delivery to programme and budget and works phasing

On this project, Countryside Partnership provided us with a 72 weeks programme and no phased completion. It was discussed and agreed at a later stage that show homes will be delivered earlier. The critical path for the project runs through the ILU construction on which we started first, delivering the whole of the foundations within the first 10 weeks on site. Due to the difficulty of maintaining access to the site for other trade we had to proceed in phases to ensure access was maintained throughout the foundation period. The work was released as a lump sum for the contract and we are working within this allowance to date. .

Resourcing with a local supply chain

With Crewe being slightly further than most projects we have carried out to date, we recruited two gangs locally to ensure smooth delivery throughout the project. At peak, 18 men were on site delivering both foundation works and deep drainage..