Hive Homes and Seddon Construction appointed us to provide civil, geo-environmental and structural consultation for the former Car Craft dealership in Rochdale, which they are set to transform into a low-rise residential development comprising 102 homes.
Sitting in a Coal Authority high risk area and having historically housed a mill, supermarket, and fuel station, meant the site had significant depth of made ground resulting in localised contamination.
Alongside this, the existing site had significant areas of hard standings and combined surface water and foul networks, meaning a large volume of water was going off site. These issues all created several challenges from a design perspective.
By implementing our standard suite of geo-environmental services including intrusive site works, remediation strategies and materials management plan, we were able to assist in discharging planning conditions relating to contaminated land. Our proposals also saw the full depth of made ground and peat excavated, replaced by engineered fill, creating a stable platform for the development.
Our civil solutions helped to reduce the area of hard standings, which allowed for a reduction of surface water runoff. Our proposals included the separation of the surface water and foul systems and implementing SuDS methods, creating a more sustainable and environmentally friendly solution. We were also able to further reduce flows offsite to both existing surface water and combined public sewers, much to the satisfaction of the LLFA, United Utilities and Rochdale Council.
