Schal at Castle ValeSchal are Carillion’s Construction Management Company. They were involved in the £23 million Castle Vale development in Birmingham for J Sainsbury Developments. This projects was completed in July 200 and is the largest Sainsbury’s development outside London. The new scheme involved the creation of a 950,000 square foot supermarket sales area, four retail units totalling 85,000 square feet, a petrol station, 700 car parking spaces and a tenants site building for the existing shopkeepers wishing to remain on the site. The construction programme was dictated around these remaining shopkeepers to ensure continuous trading. The tenants re-site building was constructed first, to house the Post Office, dentist, solicitors, JS job shop and Castle Vale Housing Action Trust offices. The Sainsbury’s store within the scheme opened for business on July 29, creating at least five hundred new jobs and is a key part of Castle Vale Housing Action Trust’s programme to regenerate the area.
Prior to construction an 18-month consultation period took place where discussions were held about the retail park layout, noise, road, impact, stopping up orders and demolition. This culminated in a two-day exhibition at the local church to allow the residents and businesses to see the final scheme prior to construction.
Castle Vale - Pre-construction
The project involved the deconstruction of the existing Castle Vale shopping centre, built in the 1960s. The existing shopping complex was run down and less than 30% occupied. A nineteen-storey block of flats was also demolished. About 11,000 tonnes of concrete from the deconstruction was crushed and reused on site. The surplus was given to the Castle Vale Housing Action Trust for use on Project Wagtail - the cycle route through the estate.
For the 12 months while the project was on site Schal worked closely with the Castle Vale Housing Action Trust, liaising with local residents, dealing with their concerns regarding possible construction disruption and providing updates on the design and programme. Regular forums were instigated on site and Schal's project manager, Darren Lewis attended monthly residents meetings, as well as featuring on the local community radio - Vale FM. Following consultation, control measures were undertaken to dampen down demolition works and acoustically insulate plant in critical areas. Piling methods were altered from rapid piling to less annoying vibro-piling and other amendments made due to community concerns included upgrading footpaths in the estate, additional landscaping and relocating the bus-stop. Following liaison with the Police on security issues the boundary fence specification was changed to prevent enclosed and isolated areas.
In a traditionally high unemployment area Schal encouraged the contractors to employ local labour through sister company, Carillion Craft Training. Thus employing labour from the Castle Vale estate
. As part of the area’s regeneration Schal were instrumental in commissioning a piece of Public Art. The sculpture by Michael Pegler was entitled New Born (photo of Schal PM,MP etc)Castle Vale - After construction
Schal also piloted the new Sainsbury web-based communication system, Datastream, which has huge potential for improving project management and control. All the design team, construction management team and trade contractors were linked by real time information over the Internet. This not only reduced cost on production, posting drawings and documents, but also ensured everyone has the latest information preventing abortive work and wastage on site.
Schal also took part in an environmental pilot scheme to monitor waste and energy use on site
with records on electricity and water usage to be used as a benchmark for similar projects.
