Eastway Retail Hub, Preston

Eastway Retail Hub is close to a growing residential development area at the intersection of the M55 and M6 motorways. Bethell’s work there is a great example of seamless delivery of a major development with collaboration of the Construction and Utility Services businesses. The park includes Lidl and Costa Coffee outlets, several other retail units and a serviced plot for a public house. The Bethell team provided a full turn-key design solution embracing the civil, structural, architectural and utility services elements including full project management, through pre-construction and construction using skilled in-house resources. 

Bethell were involved from the outset on design, advising on constructability, CDM compliance proposals, budget costings, offering aspects of value engineering, fully inclusive of phasing and programmes. The Bethell team also led liaison with all the Statutory utility providers covering the design, installation and commissioning for a 1000kva on-site substation, an on-site gas governor station and the off-site mains laying as well as managing the Section 50 road opening notices and traffic orders. 

The unique Bethell Construction and Utility Services teams gave a ‘One Stop’ solution eliminating obstacles often associated with traditional tendering, design management and coordinating individual utility diversions and service connections. Key parts of the Eastway Retail Hub project were: 

• Initial site enabling works, ecological protection measures and site clearance works with ground remodelling involving a cut and fill exercise over the 15,000m² site.
• Design, project management and installation of all utility infrastructure ensuring supplies for traffic signal systems, private street lighting, electric vehicle charging points and entrance totem pole.
• Design and construction of retail units with a gross floor area of 9,000 sq feet and the Costa drive-thru - reinforced concrete foundations with vibro-pile soil improvement were constructed with the superstructures using structural steel frames and brick//blockwork external walls. All buildings achieved a BREEAM ‘Very Good’ standard. 
• Design, adoption coordination and construction of all spine roads, highway, parking areas, drainage and attenuation, street lighting and landscaping and the S278 roadworks with a new signalised road junction, highway drainage, 800m of combined footway/cycleway, new public street lighting, new signage and road markings. 
• 104 foul water drainage including new manholes at depths greater than 6.0m and over 150 metres of pipe installation in the public highway using no-dig technologies.