Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

Like all my Phase 2 contemporaries I have now commenced my site attachment  in my case, working for Bouygues UK, on Battersea Power Station Phase 3.  I am a site manager with responsibility for a temporary bridge structure that provides critical access to the site.

Battersea Power Station (BPS) is part of a wider development of the south bank of the Thames in the Nine Elms area, from Lambeth to Chelsea Bridge, and includes the Northern Line Extension (NLE).  BPS encompasses seven phases in total. Phase 1 and 2 are firmly in the construction stage.  Phase 1, to the west of the old power station, is predominantly a residential project. Carillion is the principal contractor and the project is now in the fitting out phase with residential occupation in Q4 of 2016.  Phase 2 (Skanska) is the refurbishment of the old power station.  Bouygues UK were appointed the preferred bidder for Phase 3 late in 2015.

BPS Phase 3 consists of six buildings and includes over 1,305 residential units, a hotel, a health clinic and over 40,000 m² of commercial space.  The client commissioned Fosters and Partners and Gehry’s for the buildings’ architectural designs.  All six buildings are over 20 storeys in height and have three basement levels.

The permanent works are relatively straight forward.  Clearly, I am grossly oversimplifying the engineering in order to introduce three points that I believe will have future relevance.

Interfaces

Phase 3 is surrounded and hemmed in by other stakeholders as shown below.  The actual project is split into two phases due to the NLE station box in the southern half of the site.  This creates some interesting engineering solutions to the problems across the interface.  On the western building there will be a construction joint in the middle of the building (O-1) and across the southern boundary there will be the requirement for temporary ground anchors as the basement levels are excavated.  There are further interface difficulties with Phase 1 and Phase 2 to the north as a result of their builds being at different stages and Network Rail to our east.

Temporary Works

Access (for site deliveries and future residents) must be maintained to Phase 1 and Phase 2 for the entirety of the construction of phase 3 – In effect a highway (same road width as Ex Rhubarb Creek) through our site as we build …   The temporary works solution is 3 large temporary bridges with accompanying platforms built approximately at existing ground level which will allow excavation and construction of the basement levels below.

Commercial

Finally and fortuitously for me as my commercial experience is limited the contractual aspects of this job are a bit of a muddle at the moment.  Bouygues UK do not have a contract, Bouygues UK do not even have a letter of intent.  Our sub-contractors (who were not chosen by us but procured directly by the client) do not have contracts,  they do not even have letters of intent…  And yet we are all beavering away.  Set these contractual woes in the context of the London property bubble and a funding mechanism that relies upon pre-sales and I think I have the beginning of a TMR.