Member Article

Excellent ranking awarded to Wynne Construction's first scheme for Cheshire authority

New units built at a Cheshire business park by Wynne Construction have been awarded top marks under the industry’s standard sustainable built environment coding.

The scheme at Duttons Business Centre in Northwich, achieved the ranking of ‘excellent’ with a score of 75.4% under the BREEAM rating for new building projects.

Wynne Construction was principal contractor on the 30-week contract to build four units at the existing business park. The scheme, which was the company’s first for Cheshire West and Chester Council, was completed on time, in budget, and without defects.

The project replaced derelict buildings that had been previously demolished. Each new unit has a floor area of 245 sq m and comprises an office, kitchen, toilet facilities and workshop area.

Eaves have been installed at a height to allow tenants to install a first floor mezzanine floor deck if necessary.

The council is now signing up tenants for the premises, each of which has on-site parking.

The Wynne Construction team worked closely with tenants in the existing six units, as well as staff at an adjacent educational building, to minimise disruption. This included scheduling activities around an exam timetable, to avoid making noise that might disrupt pupils.

Ground conditions at the site meant Wynne engineers decided to bypass the traditional method of digging trenches to complete foundations prior to constructing the floor.

The concrete raft construction with steel portal frame they selected instead, was quicker and easier to complete, and also saved money for the client.

They were also able to reduce vehicular journeys to and from the location, site by recycling materials from the demolished units.

Materials were crushed and reused as aggregate to increase the ground level of half of the contract site to match the rest of the business park.

Constructed of engineering brick up to 2.4m high with rib metal composite cladding above, each unit has 20 photovoltaic roof panels, providing 6kw of renewable energy.

The new premises were built under the council’s Property Reinvestment Programme, and part funded by the European Regional Development Fund, to provide new business space in the Cheshire West and Chester area.

Graham Dickson, contracts manager at Wynne Construction, said: “This was our first contract with Cheshire West and Chester Council, so we’re particularly pleased it went so well. Achieving the BREEAM excellent rating was the icing on the cake.

“We were able to continue our working relationship with Lovelock Mitchell Architects, which has also proven successful on other schemes over the years.

“We’re now all looking forward to having the opportunity to develop a long working relationship with the authority, in the same way we have with other clients in Wales.”

Councillor Brian Clarke, cabinet member for economic development and infrastructure, said: “Providing workspaces like this is a key component of what we are doing as a Council to ensure this is a great place to do business. We aim to maintain a thriving economy for the area and we want to facilitate that in a number of ways.

“We are also providing assistance to small and medium sized enterprises through a series of workshops and one to one support to help the businesses realise their growth ambitions. It is growth that we need around the whole of our borough.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sam Harris .