Willmott Dixon received a phone call from Croydon Council just before the Christmas of 2015; they had a site which had been partially demolished and a contractor that had been removed from the project. On top of this they had a school living in temporary accommodation with a ‘must open’ date of Sept 2017 as there was no plan B.
The client’s budget was under pressure as they had expended monies with the previous contractor and had been left with what we believed was an inefficient design. Willmott Dixon sought to redesign the scheme whilst still meeting the planning stipulations and, in the July of 2016 commenced on site with the remainder of the demolition works and other enabling works. This included various surveys, asbestos removal and party wall works.
The location of the site was a challenge in itself, situated in the heart Croydon on a main transport road, with the build sandwiched between a church and commercial properties. This location meant that access to the
upper level envelope works would be difficult, logistics into the building would need to be well managed and maintaining sequence to get watertight imperative.
By far the biggest challenge was starting the main works mid-September 2016 and having to get the pupils in for following academic year. A challenge that even the client thought would be unachievable and this was
their biggest fear. 49 Weeks to complete a three floor RC framed building with site constraints’ was never
going to be easy.
