Paddington Square
Sellar Properties employed us to carry out the controlled demolition of Royal Mail assets prior to the construction of Paddington Square. Following the successful demolition phase we were then awarded the substructure phase. Eventually, an impressive 14-storey, glass-clad building on 3-storey podiums, will offer more than 350,000 sq ft of office, retail, and restaurant space.
The initial phase of the works involved the deconstruction of three buildings connected by a two-storey enclosed link-bridge at first and second floor levels in Winsland Mews. The subsequent phase included pile enabling, secant walls and bearing piles, temporary works to facilitate a bulk excavation, and a hybrid top-down-bottom-up construction of the new London Road and multi-level retail basement, adjacent to and incorporating the new entrance of Paddington Station ticket hall.
70,000m3
material excavated
4
levels of basement box constructed
33m
below ground
During the demolition phase, we established and implemented a robust logistics regime to ensure minimal impact on neighbouring parties and maintain the safety of all stakeholders. Dedicated traffic marshals were employed to manage access and egress, controlling traffic and pedestrian movements to ensure site safety.
Given the project’s location in such an exclusive area of London, we deemed it crucial to foster good relations with surrounding businesses and residents. We achieved this by maintaining consistent communication with all stakeholders, publishing newsletters, ensuring the blue route on Winsland Mews remained open throughout the works, and aligning working hours and break times with the voluntary Section 61 notice applied for by Erith prior to the commencement of any noisy works.
The substructure phase of works was awarded due to several factors, including our outstanding performance during the demolition phase and our excellent track record of undertaking substructure packages throughout the capital in high-risk environments. The works at Paddington Square included pile enabling, secant walls and bearing piles, temporary works to facilitate a bulk excavation, and a hybrid top-down-bottom-up construction of the new London Road and multi-level retail basement, adjacent to and incorporating the new entrance of Paddington Station ticket hall.
Following the removal of the existing sewer, a new mains sewer was installed and commissioned. This was achieved by laying the sewer in an open cut excavation and driving a heading under the existing London Underground structure. The new sewer was completed, commissioned, and flows turned on, allowing the piling and secant wall construction to commence.
Throughout the project, we maintained constant dialogue with St Mary’s Hospital, Royal Mail Group, Network Rail, London Underground, and Westminster City Council to ensure smooth delivery and continuous cooperation. The success of this project, our most prestigious and highest value to date, was due to several factors, including the integration of various members of our management teams from Swanton, Swantest, Haulage, and Plant divisions, as well as the assimilation of major subcontractors and designers into the Erith team.
In-house capability
LUL Works
The scope also included the construction of the lift shaft, providing step-free access from street level to the Bakerloo line, four storeys below ground. Upon completion, we progressed to constructing the step-free access connection tunnel to both the northbound and southbound platforms using a specialist tunnelling excavator to hollow out the London Clay and a sprayed concrete lining technique. This technique involves rapidly spraying the excavated ground with concrete to stabilise it and form the permanent tunnel lining. The excavated material was removed by a 70-tonne crawler crane, utilising the newly created lift shaft.
The tunnel was excavated in very close proximity to London Underground Ltd (LUL) assets including an escalator and switch room located just half a metre from the tunnel. This was the first time in the history of the underground that a tunnel has been excavated in such close proximity to an existing escalator. Extensive mitigation, design engineering and monitoring was carried out to ensure that there was no adverse effect on the LUL assets. This included liaison with all Network Rail, LUL engineering and asset management disciplines that could potentially have been impacted by the execution of our scope of works.
“I wanted to take this opportunity to commend you on the great work being undertaken by Erith at our Paddington Cube redevelopment. Although an exceptionally challenging and complex scheme, we have experienced the upmost professionalism and work ethic from your team. Your team must be commended on their sterling efforts in adhering to guidelines whilst maintaining the critical path for our development.”
Paul Flexney-Briscoe
Construction Director – Sellar
