AV Group’s hire team is in high spirits this week following the completion of a major on-site accommodation installation for McLaren Construction in Bromley.
McLaren has been appointed by Cathedral (Bromley) Limited to build the £90m mixed use regeneration scheme which will transform Bromley town centre.
Commenting on the scheme AV Group project manager John Roper said: "We've worked with McLaren on many projects before and were delighted to be instructed once again to provide top of the range site accommodation for its contractors and sub-contractors. We had a much smaller triple stack on site when work began six months ago but, with up to 450 contractors on site at peak times, McLaren really needed a much larger facility. We have built from new half of the units and supplemented the remainder from our existing fleet.
"We have installed 18 units in total giving a 454 m2 of space and, to make best use of the space on site, we have double or triple stacked units. The induction unit on the ground floor has a large platform on top which gives access to the second floor. The building will provide the workforce with all of its welfare facilities including a canteen, changing rooms, showers, toilets, drying room and recreational space as well as offices, a reception room, a computer room and meeting rooms for the company. Externally we have included a viewing gantry so people can observe the progress of the development across the site."
Access was particularly tricky, which is something the team is quite used to, and the team used five different cranes to lift the buildings into place. John added: "The entrance to the site is right on a junction with traffic lights so we needed to get the units lifted quickly into place. As we ran out of space to manoeuver we reduced the size of the crane from 50 tonne to 25 tonne. We were then also hampered by the recent high winds so it certainly had its challenges to get everything in place in just one week."
AV Group's buildings will be on-site with McLaren for the duration of the build which is estimated for completion in late 2015. When completed the scheme will provide Bromley with a new residential and leisure quarter with cinema, public open spaces, restaurants, a 130-bedroom hotel and 200 private and affordable apartments and a 400 space underground car park.