Contractor Bouygues UK and temporary works specialist Mabey Hire have collaborated on the basement propping scheme on Swansea Council’s 71/72 Kingsway office development.
The new £33M Swansea city centre office scheme is being developed on the site of the former Oceana nightclub, which closed in 2014.
The five storey development, with two underground levels, will include 10,590m2 of commercial floor space and 600 co-working spaces for the tech, digital and creative industries.
Swansea Council appointed Bouygues UK to deliver the complex project. The main contractor has been involved in early stage collaboration with Mabey Hire on the temporary works on the scheme.
Working closely with structural engineer Bingham Hall, Mabey Hire was responsible for supplying and installing the equipment required.
The original proposed scheme design included the use of steel walers and bracing struts for the basement excavation. This approach, however, was not suitable for the 71/72 Kingsway project due to concerns that the groundworks shoring equipment would clash with the piling rigs.
Instead, an alternative solution was put forward featuring Mabey Hire’s Mass 25 props, which were used to create portal frames in specific areas within the basement area. This enabled the extensive piling operations to be undertaken without disruption.
Mabey Hire’s Enviroguard monitoring solution was also installed. It remained on site during the temporary works installation and throughout the piling works themselves. This provided real-time data and insight as to the site behaviours, so that any movement of the existing retaining wall was captured.
Mabey Hire major projects manager Lee Matthews said: “Working closely and collaboratively with structural engineers Bingham Hall and the main contractor, Bouygues UK, we remained on hand throughout the works. On a project of this scale, it’s inevitable that there will be some changes required as construction progresses, and we were able to deliver those changes speedily on site too.”
Bouygues UK site manager Chelbie Jones commented: “Mabey Hire has done a great job for us in terms of the design and delivery in facilitating our logistic constraints and programme requirements. Despite the challenges the site presents, the works carried out have been executed well and collaboratively by Mabey Hire and the Bouygues UK delivery team.”
The 71/72 The Kingsway project is being part-funded by the £1.3bn Swansea Bay City Deal and supported by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government.
The development is due for completion this summer.
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