St James Industrial Estate, Chichester

New Employment Units

A 48k sq ft industrial development delivered for Chichester District Council at St James Industrial Estate, Chichester. The project included demolition of existing buildings following asbestos removal across the estate with the new development comprising five new buildings, subdivided into 30 new starter units with current tenants working a variety of industries from food distribution to vehicle workshops.

Secured under a competitive, single stage D&B procurement route, we undertook a value engineering exercise to bring the scheme into budget by adjusting of the proposed slab levels and utilising the site-won crushed material across the site.

Construction

The new buildings are sited on pad foundations, on an engineered fill, ensuring minimum muck away operations and reducing vehicle movements during the build.
Crushed and repurposed materials were used on site.

Ground improvement The site investigation detailed up to 3m of made ground overlying dense gravelly chalk. We provided stone columns at 1 per sqm of foundation pad and at 2m centres to the strips in order to provide 150kpa and columns at 2.5m centres to provide 50kpa to the floor slabs.

A part of the project included upgrading the footpath under S38 / S278 agreements to widen and upgrade the existing footpath to facilitate new cycle routes.

Community liaison

This project was delivered within a residentially sensitive area and we therefore adopted an open-door policy by hosting coffee mornings and site tours. Regular newsletters were issued to keep residents informed with site progress and upcoming works schedules.

Considerate Constructors Scheme scores were excellent – our final result was 42/45.

Environmental positives

There are a total of 31 electrical vehicle charging points on site and each of the five roofs is covered in pv panels. BREEAM Very Good was achieved.​