Tufnell Park
This was our second project for Opal Property Group for student accommodation named Opal 4, the end user is London Metropolitan University. The contract value was £27m.
The brief
Tufnell
What we did
Access to the site was via a densely populated residential road which meant the site had to maintain both a clean and courteous relationship with the local residents. Due to the importance of maintaining this relationship we negotiated with the local authority to undertake some minor civils works to an adjacent road to allow all vehicles to access the site from another direction and therefore interaction with the residents was kept to a minimum.
Due to the tight programme it was important to commence and complete the 145 studios in the refurbishment building as early as possible therefore reducing the strain of completing 700 units down to 550 units. To achieve this we had to install the site entrance road very early in the construction to achieve a suitable surface to allow the 2500 pre-cast units to be delivered, off loaded and installed whilst still achieving access for deliveries to the refurbishement building.
Due to the site layout and the adjacent houses on two sides of the site, a recreational park to another and a 6m high retaining wall to the other, the choice by us to install two tower cranes proved to be a vital logistical installation which allowed materials to be loaded out immediately after they have been off loaded and therefore maximise the ability of using the various flat roof areas for storage of materials.
The result
The methods we used proved to be very successful as the structure to the new build finished some three weeks ahead of programme.
