Over the past few years, a number of developers have been carrying out background technical studies on 320 acres of land located on the outskirts of Bishop’s Stortford in Hertfordshire. The developers have combined their land interests into a single company, The Bishops Stortford North Consortium.
The Consortium comprises four of the UK’s leading housebuilders, Bovis Homes, Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon and Tilia Homes, together with a strategic land promotion company, The Fairfield Partnership. It was formed to comprehensively plan this important site and ensure that all necessary supporting infrastructure such as schools, parks and community facilities, and highways and public transport improvements can be delivered alongside the new homes.
The consented scheme will provide up to 2,200 new homes, two Local Centres and Primary Schools, and around 59 ha of multifunctional greenspace and landscape habitats.
The development will be built over two phases; the Western Neighbourhood and the Eastern Neighbourhood.
ECL Civil Engineering was appointed by the Consortium as the Principal Contractor in May 2021 to support the expansive infrastructure for the Eastern stage of the project.
We’ve been commissioned to provide our multidisciplinary services to facilitate the installation of a new roundabout on the A120, a drainage strategy across the site linking to large attenuation ponds, substantial stormwater draining pipes being laid at considerable depths across the site, a significant amount of earthworks, a sizeable permanent pumping station and the installation of a temporary bridge over an existing brook. All works will be managed whilst maintaining the current haul road access across the site.
Works started on July 2021. We have paid particular attention to satisfy discharge of all of the Arboricultural requirements by applying tree protection measures, including protective fencing and restrictions to the extent of topsoil stripping, highlighting the construction exclusion zones and those trees to be retained.
We also operated around further constraints like retained habitats and listed heritage objects in the form of an ancient wartime turret structure at the haul road entrance, all in line with the sites Ecological Assessment and an Arboriculture Assessment.
The ECL team have worked collaboratively, Thomas Jamieson (PM) and Andrew Lennox (SQS) fresh from delivering Cambourne Infrastructure will be continuing their successful relationship with the same client teams from Ellipsis and Arcadis in delivering the next phase of this flagship scheme.
Following a recent recruitment drive on the back of this key contract award, we are also very pleased to welcome Jose Antolin (Snr Engineer) and Anthony Caulfield (Works Manager) to the ECL team.
Anthony brings a wealth of experience with him from various sectors and most recently from the M1 and A14 upgrade schemes. And Jose, who will be working alongside Krzyszof Wieczorek to head up the engineering team, has recently made the move across from Costain.
We’re pleased to report that the team are currently on schedule to complete this project at the end of July 2022, and, subject to further planning permission, the whole of the Bishops Stortford North development is due for completion in 2026.
Andrew Lennox, Senior Quantity Surveyor at ECL, added.
This project makes full use of our infrastructure skillset, delivering bulk earthworks, deep drainage and S278 works to a busy A road, whilst maintaining the construction programme and achieving key sectional completion dates in good time.
As one of the biggest civil engineering companies within the Bedfordshire region, we are currently invested in several large scale civil engineering and groundworks projects.
With our self-delivery model and the latest technology, we have raised productivity and are delivering groundworks and infrastructure schemes quicker than ever before.
To see how ECL Civil Engineering can help with your Groundwork or Civil Engineering Project, please get in touch.
