Thames Valley Park
Client: Astrea
Duration: 16 Weeks
Value – £1.2m
Project Details
The TVP project scope was the strip out of 4no large commercial office buildings in a prominent Reading Business Park in preparation for demolition. The combined area of the buildings was approximately 25,000m2 set within an 18 acre site.
The scope of the soft strip required the removal of all mechanical & electrical services, partitions, suspended ceilings, raised access flooring and loose FF&E left by the previous tennant.
Our only neighbours on the Business Park were located a significant distance from our working areas and we had ample working space around each building for access. This allowed us the luxury of being able to mechanically load the soft strip waste which helped to improve the overall efficiency and speed of the disposal process.
As the distance between the buildings was significant a decision was made to set up an independent loading compound area for each of the buildings; the compounds were located immediately adjacent to the building within the existing car parks. To further reduce the need for manual handling, and the double handling of waste, we established a designated chute into each compound area for waste to be removed from the 2nd and 1st floor level down to the ground level where it could then be mechanically loaded.
At the outset of the soft strip works it was decided not to strip the internal fire escape staircases as there would be a period of time between the soft strip and demolition phases, leaving the staircases would provided safe access and egress routes throughout the buildings. On completion of the project we also left a fully operational fire alarm system in place to satisfy the insurance requirements.
One of the slightly unusual challenges on the project was maintaining the security of the site at night as although the building was located in an operational business park it was bounded by open greenbelt and the site was targeted on a regular basis for anti- social behaviour. Daily night security patrols and regular liaison with the business park security kept the site safe and secure for the duration of our site works.