Overview
The Royal Hospital Chelsea is a retirement and nursing home for 300 British soldiers. The South Grounds of the hospital not only provide a tranquil sanctuary for the Chelsea Pensioners, but host the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show. The show attracts more than 157,000 visitors every May. By 2014, there were two issues affecting use and access across the site; the existing asphalt was well worn and ageing, and an inadequate drainage system was causing continual flooding issues.
The Challenge
The Royal Hospital Chelsea grounds is a unique, central London site with an unusual demand on its infrastructure. It is dormant for most of the year with a few small private functions, until it hosts the Chelsea Flower Show, where 800 people spend 33 days building 20 show gardens. During this time, many heavy construction vehicles and up 400 tonnes of materials are dropped off. The Royal Hospital Chelsea wanted a durable carriageway and modern drainage system solution to last for years to come.
Marlborough were challenged with the construction taking place on a conservation area with many 300 year old protected trees, this meant it took materials 2-3 hours to get on-site.
Fact File
Client The Royal Hospital Chelsea
Date September 2013 – February 2014
Duration 6 months
Value £2 million
Project
- Upgrading 10,000m² of new carriageway
- Laying 884 tonnes of 10mm super colour exposed material
- Installing 3km of ornamental kerbs and channel blocks
- Upsizing the drainage network across the site
- Increasing the storm water capacity
Client savings
- Arisings reduced by 96%.
- Lorry movement reduced by 87%.
- Recycling in-situ reduced timelines by 50%.
Quote
“Marlborough attracts people who take care and have pride in their work. Several gangs of Operatives worked tirelessly for 6 months to reconstruct drainage networks, lay more than 3km of high quality bespoke granite kerbs and granite channels blocks to ensure positive drainage. The technical compliance, attention to detail and level of quality finish along the entire carriageway was exceptional.”
Mark Chiverrell, Technical Director Project Centre
The Solution
Marlborough has 25 years’ experience of building carriageways, whilst overcoming on-site operational issues of large drainage projects. Which put them in a strong position. Marlborough’s Operatives had experience of operating recycling machines and hand laying ornamental granite kerbs, whilst their teams of Drainage Specialists could lay new drainage and modify existing areas.
“One of the things I value most is their very collaborative and transparent team culture. It makes a big difference to have a contractor that wants to work closely with us and is supportive and responsive. With Marlborough, I get a team who are attentive, work collaboratively and honestly with me and don’t lose focus on delivering first class communications and compliance.”
“From the design stage, Marlborough has been fundamental in delivering the Broad Lane Square improvements scheme. During the works, not only did the team manage to keep to the programme, but they went the extra mile to ensure attention to detail and came up with innovative solutions to address issues encountered on site. My thanks on behalf of Haringey goes out to Marlborough for their dedication to deliver.”
“Working alongside our Term Service Contractor Marlborough Highways, we successfully completed renovations to the Crowstone Footbridge. The designs were provided by Marlborough, and the work was unique. The scheme was completed to budget and ahead of its programme duration.”
“I would like to thank you and your team for your efforts, the Marlborough crews were professional, courteous, and hard working all day and ensured the event went without a hitch. You and the team were a credit to the company, demonstrating commitment and support to the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.”
“I just wanted to say what a pleasure it has been to work with Marlborough Highways over the last six months. The quality of work is superb, and there has been some excellent collaboration between Milestone and Marlborough to complete, what at times, has been quite a challenging scheme. I hope to work with Marlborough on another project in the near future.”
“Marlborough worked with us in constructing a 1.3km cycle track. There were a number of technical difficulties to overcome, and their gifted foreman worked to propose some innovative solutions to the challenges we faced. The result is a facility that the locals are proud of, providing walkers and cyclists with alternative access to the hospital and nearby school. The scheme was a lot of hard work, but well worth it.”
“Marlborough attracts people who take care and have pride in their work. Several gangs of Operatives worked tirelessly for six months to reconstruct drainage networks, lay more than 3km of high quality bespoke granite kerbs and granite channels blocks to ensure positive drainage. The technical compliance, attention to detail and level of quality finish along the entire carriageway was exceptional”.
“We saw huge benefits in appointing Marlborough as our full service contractor and we’re impressed – they’ve delivered consistent high quality service and superior quality control across every project. Marlborough, provide us with a ‘one-stop’ shop solution – we get the same quality of service and better control across all aspects of the project.”
Please see our privacy notice for more information on how Marlborough Highways Ltd take care of your details.