The Civils Side of Life

Lamba Court, Salford

The Beginning, Phase 1

Following working on the project at Chester I moved to the City of Salford, Manchester. The general overview of the works to be carried out are almost identical to those carried out at The Leadworks. The site itself is approximately a third of the size of the Chester project, situated between the River Irwell and the notorious Ordsall Estate.

This being a brown field site, major demolition works were required before any construction could begin. A concrete floor slab that covered the entire site had to be removed along with several large stanchion bases. Once this was done the resulting concrete rubble was crushed and spread to create the platform for work to be carried out. Stone vibro-piles were installed to increase the stability of the made up ground and trenches were excavated to form the foundations of the buildings.

Associated roads and drainage systems to the site were constructed to allow the Client to the first block while work continues on the remaining areas. The first block trialed a special concrete on the ground floor slab that was supposed to reduce the time it took to place and finish the floor. Even though the floor came out well in places the floor retained patches that were not up to standard and remedial works had to be carried out once the main structure of the building had been erected.

With the first block complete we moved onto the second and followed the same process until the ground floor slab was finished. At this point we pulled off site to allow the Client to work on the first and second block and begin admitting residents to the first.

The image below shows the site with the first block being erected by the Client, with construction of the second block´s foundations underway and final demolition being carried out.

Return to Lamba Court, Phase 2

One of our first jobs on return to this site was to begin finishing works to the first block in readiness for new residents to move in. This included landscaping and top-soiling, paving to footpaths and block work to car parking and wearing course to the road.

The major works on return was the third and final block, this building ran along the bank of the Manchester Ship Canal and once again all land had to be proof dug to remove all obstructions for later piling. A pre-existing office building, temporarily used by Bellway's as an office, had to be demolished. During demolition a large chamber was exposed, this after several weeks of investigation turned out to be an underground culvert system filled with approximately 1.5 million litres of water!

Upon checking the location of the culvert with the planned new apartment block it was discovered that it was situated under the building. With this news it was quickly determined that a redesign of the foundations would be hugely expensive and probably impractical due to the required size needed to span the three metre wide, four metre deep culvert tunnels. Instead we set out to uncover the top of the brickwork roof and take it out by smashing into it with our largest machine. Eventually the culvert was pumped dry and knocked in on itself and work could continue with the new apartment block.

Work continued on the third block as with the previous two until the building was completed up to ground floor level and surrounding roads and drainage systems were in place. With this done we once again pulled off site to allow the Client to continue with the construction of the final block. We will have to return at a later date to complete the finishing works surrounding the second and third blocks.