Civil Engineering, Rail contractor & Build Specialists
Holmeside Bus Rationalisation Project
Holmeside Bus Rationalisation Project
As part of the ongoing regeneration works in Sunderland city centre, our Client required an experienced Principal Contractor to create a new gyratory system and bus priority along key locations within the Holmeside area.
Action
- Traffic management
- Site clearance
- Surface water drainage installation
- Ironwork alterations
- Service ducting and chambers
- Earthworks
- Footpath and carriageway reconstruction
- Rain garden construction
- Kerbing, edging, paving and tactile installation
- Removal of existing road markings
- Paving
- Permanent traffic signals
- Tree pits and landscaping
- Surfacing and road markings
Stakeholders
Key stakeholders on this project included pedestrians, road users, and occupiers of the many properties located along each route.
Working in collaboration with our approved traffic management contractor and the Client, we established phased traffic management to minimise impact on pedestrians and road users. This was supplemented by our resident Site Manager who consulted daily with individual property occupiers whose access requirements were integrated into phasing and programme.
Through proactive engagement with the local community, significant social value was added to this project, this included multiple site-based work experience placements for local students and attending Sunderland College to take part in their annual careers fair event. We also employed a number of local people including the Site Manager, Engineer, and local labour.
Challenges and Solutions
Due to the works being undertaken in a predominantly high-street environment, maintaining public safety and access to occupied buildings was critical. Client imposed constraints included uninterrupted use of roads, and one footpath remaining in use at all times during the works.
We adopted an early engagement strategy with our proposed traffic management subcontractor and the Client to develop and approve traffic management plans.
Works were intricately phased to allow uninterrupted access to occupied properties, with occupiers consulted throughout.
By prior agreement, some works were undertaken out of normal site working hours to minimise risk and disruption.
Result
Successful handover over this high quality project, achieved through implementing our ISO compliant policies and procedures, coupled with self-delivery of key civils aspects of the project, and continual liaison with the Client’s project management team.
Thanks to the success of our works at Holmeside, late in the programme we were awarded additional paving works around the new Sunderland Train Station. We worked in close collaboration with the Principal Contractor for the station build to programme and provide resources for this work.
The Difference We Made
The Holmeside and station improvements are part of the council's continuing commitment to the ‘City Plan’ for a more dynamic, healthy and vibrant city. The new road layout reduces congestion in the city centre, giving buses more priority and improving their journey times and reliability, and enhancing how pedestrians use this part of the city centre.