Gascoigne Estate

Following a competitive tendering exercise Clifford Devlin was appointed to carry out an enabling works package to facilitate the regeneration of the Gascoigne Estate in Barking, East London. The works involved the demolition of ten low-rise residential blocks and one 12-storey tower block.

The programme, managed by Be First, Barking & Dagenham's regeneration company, is helping to transform the east side of the 1960s Gascoigne estate into a modern, environmentally-friendly community.

Works started with the removal of notifiable and non-notifiable asbestos materials from all the buildings such as textured coatings, floor tiles, bitumen and asbestos insulating board (AIB) panels in risers.

The 3-month remediation phase was carefully phased to allow soft strip of the buildings to take place concurrently to reduce programme.

Structural demolition involved manual and machine techniques. The 12-storey Bamber House was fully scaffolded and carefully deconstructed on a topdown, floor-by-floor basis while the low-rise structures were demolished using excavators fitted with pulveriser attachments. Care was taken to reduce noise and vibration and dust suppression used to maintain air quality and minimise inconvenience to residents of neighbouring properties.

Clifford Devlin created an apprenticeship for the project. Following liaison with London Borough of Barking & Dagenham's Construction Team Community Solutions, we interviewed a number of young, unemployed persons for the position of Trainee Demolition Operative. The successful candidate was given induction training which included asbestos awareness and a CCDO Demolition Labourer course organised by the National Demolition Training Group (NDTG) before starting work with the site team.

A quarterly Partner Performance Review by Principal Contractor, Wilmott Dixon, rated Clifford Devlin Excellent/Outstanding in several criteria including Health & Safety, Environment, Programme, Commercial Approach and Communication.