We were employed by Hawthorn Estates on a fixed price contract to undertake the redevelopment of the site from a former industrial brownfield site to a modern business park.

The scope included obtaining planning permission, demolition of existing buildings, site clearance and the design and build of Hensingham Business Park.

Once approved, works started demolishing the existing building on site which were steel framed portal building clad with tin sheet. As part of the works, the waste plan for the site tried to recycle and re-use materials as much as possible so only a very small amount of material went to landfill. We used our own skips and wagons to dispose of any surplus materials from the demolition. Once the site was cleared the next task for us was to excavate the site because underneath the existing building was an old quarry.

Most of the work was carried out during the pandemic, this situation called for change and innovation to our working methods. It was not possible to work from home, so we talked as an onsite team and developed a new working strategy. This covered getting to work in separate vehicles, hygiene procedures, separate areas for breaks, increase welfare areas, increased cleaning etc. We also agreed that only one contractor on each building at any one time. Although challenging to manage we did so in terms of keeping to program with no COVID cases on site.