Client  Maine Road Private Housing Regeneration Scheme

Dates  October 2008 to October 2009

Period  50 weeks

Value  £1.288 million

Contract  PSPC10 for design element. Public Sector Partnering Contract Option 6 for main contract.

Scope of works

This is a scheme to regenerate the private housing environment surrounding the site of the old Manchester City Maine Road football ground which is being developed into a new housing estate with a primary school.

The scheme incorporates circa 300 properties and includes: Removal of existing alleyway surface surrounding old ground. Demolition of rear garden walls to all properties adjacent to boundary. Rebuilding of walls in brickwork, binding into existing side walls. Rebuild side walls where needed. Demolition of brick sheds. Grub up and remove redundant floor and drains. Provide and fit rear yard gates with brick archways where selected. Renew drainage to rear yards. Lay new paving slabs, kerbs and grass to rear yards as per residents design. Form new tarmac alleyway with new drainage gully. Provide alley gating and alley greening schemes working with Groundwork.
 

Key performance indicators

After a year of planning this scheme started on site in October 2008 with works commencing early November. We do not as yet have KPI’s for completed properties. Resident satisfaction, client satisfaction, waste recycling, cost predictability and time predictability will all be monitored jointly with the client.

This contract has been secured and let as part of the Manchester Small Works Framework which we are one of 7 contractors working with Manchester City Council. This 4 year framework undertakes schemes on any non social housing property owned by Manchester City Council and typically each job is under £500,000. Maine Road is an exception which we secured in competition with a Framework 1 partner – Gleeson, based on our reputation for delivery and competitive pricing. KPI’s are produced for the Small Works Framework overall.
 

Innovations

The planning and cost modelling phase for the Maine Road Scheme has taken 12 months to develop with intricate planning, budgetary and facility (mains sewer and street lighting) issues being jointly addressed by architects, planners, contractor, resident groups and end client. There is now a years worth of programmed work for Kinetics to move these plans to reality for local residents.

Funded by Lowry Homes as the developer of the previous Maine Road football ground, the scheme aims to provide an improved boundary area between new and old, a better environment for local residents and a solution to potential crime hot spots in a traditional back alley environment.

The demolition and waste removal volumes generated create particular issues for tight back streets with poor access. We have liaised with Lowry Homes to minimise disruption to residents by removing all waste through the Lowry development scheme so avoiding thousands of heavy skip lorries in a built up residential area by diverting them through Lowry’s site to a main road access. This has meant that we have had to co-ordinate our programme of properties to tie in with Lowry’s phased development plan for their site.

Discussions have also taken place with regard to the detailed specification to try and create a flow between the old and the new housing areas.  

We have also managed to co-ordinate use of a compound with Lowry’s on their site which will allow sufficient room to crush and recycle brickwork and hardcore. Where possible some of this will be reused as hardcore on the site itself and the rest sent as a recycled product elsewhere. This helps to achieve the stringent recycling targets agreed with the client.

The longevity of this contract has created a good opportunity to provide stable site based training for two young brickwork apprentices from the Manchester area. They are mentored on site by the site agent and attend MANCAT on a weekly basis.

Through the Small Works Framework we have also been participating in a local trainee scheme to provide block work placements for a range of opportunities ranging from the trade craft apprentices, trainee surveyors and office based administrators. A joint recruitment exercise with the council produced a group of local youngsters seeking opportunities in construction.

The trainees are employed by a central agency and rotate around the framework partners to gain a wide knowledge base during their training cycle. The long term aim is to provide full time employment, and this is already proving successful. The youngsters have had joint inductions and attended a team building outward bound training scheme. This has created a positive start and a team spirit amongst the diverse trainees. They will be brought back together as a group periodically to compare progress and share experiences, with the aim of overcoming the isolation that some trainees can feel and create better retention rates for the contractors.