| Work starts on Kingston Heights scheme |
By: Rebecca Hubbard
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Posted: Friday, December 16, 2011 10:43 am
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Leading specialist contractor United House has begun construction work on the first phase of a £70 million mixed-use development in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in south-west London on behalf of NHP Leisure Developments.
Kingston Heights will comprise 136 residential units, including 80 private apartments, 56 affordable homes which will be managed by national affordable housing provider Affinity Sutton, and an upmarket 150 bedroom hotel with meeting, banqueting and conference facilities. Paul Brookes Architects and KDS & Associates Ltd have been appointed as Project Delivery Architects on the scheme, which is due for completion in spring 2013.
The first phase of the project will involve the technically-challenging encapsulation of a UK Power Networks substation within a steel-lined concrete ‘box’ approximately 200 metres long, 38 metres wide and four storeys high. The enclosure will be constructed using pre-cast concrete for the columns, bridge beams and infill panels, and will require a 1,200 tonne mobile crane to lift the 50 ‘u’ shape beams that will form the podium deck, with an average length of 34 metres, a depth of 1.7 metres and each weighing 70 tonnes, into position. The works will be meticulously planned in key stages around pre-arranged transformer outage times starting in Spring 2012 to ensure there is an uninterrupted supply to UK Power Networks customers in Kingston and the surrounding area.
Kingston Heights will be very eco-friendly, benefitting from a highly sustainable district heating system that will provide all the heating, cooling and hot water requirements for the development. This innovative system will incorporate a state-of-the-art open loop ground source heat pump system that, as its power source, will take full advantage of the natural heat that is permanently stored in the water of the River Thames - a highly efficient use of a natural resource to deliver the scheme’s renewable energy strategy.
Jeffrey Adams, Group Chief Executive of United House, said: “Kingston Heights is a great opportunity for United House to demonstrate its skills as a major contractor for large mixed-use projects. The marketplace is changing dramatically and we are changing with it. From what was once primarily a refurbishment company, new build now accounts for the vast majority of our current £270 million turnover, and by 2012 we will have some 750 homes under development.”
Mike Spenser-Morris, Managing Director of NHP Leisure Developments, said, “It is wonderful to see the construction work on Kingston Heights under way at last. Having first acquired the site in 1999, our team has been working tirelessly with Kingston Council to deliver possibly the most important development – and what is now the final piece of the jigsaw - in the regeneration of this part of Kingston town centre. Having overcome a multitude of unique obstacles, we are at last looking forward to seeing our vision turned into reality.
“We were delighted to have appointed United House as our main contractor on a negotiated basis due to their exceptional management team, their professionalism in every area of the construction process, and their co-operative approach to dealing with the unique circumstances of this project”.
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