Wates completes £36m regeneration of Cruddas Park

4 October, 2011

Completion of the £36m transformation of Cruddas Park in Newcastle was celebrated this week with guests offered a bird’s eye view over the area’s dramatic regeneration and a 360 degree outlook over the Tyne Valley.

Contractor Wates Living Space held a breakfast event for residents, Newcastle City Council, Your Homes Newcastle, local subcontractors and other social landlords and housing professionals in order to mark the newly completed regeneration programme. This has seen the substantial redevelopment of five 1960s concrete tower blocks and the surrounding area, which has now been renamed as Riverside Dene.

Wates has been working on the blocks’ intrusive refurbishment since 2008, carrying out extensive remodelling works to create 383 one and two bedroom and two bedroom duplex apartments.

In the absence of historical architectural drawings for the structure of the blocks, each building required a different approach to construction and a substantial amount of concrete cutting in order for the remodelling exercise to commence. A care fully planned sequencing programme enabled Wates to carry out works in combination and deliver efficiencies in both time and cost.

At the project’s peak, over 200 site operatives were working across 60 floors over four different blocks, requiring 75 lifts of scaffolding. Despite its complexity, Wates clocked up over 1.5m incident-free man hours over the course of construction.

Each apartment has now been refitted to a high specification with elegant windows, bright interiors and spectacular views. Externally, works involved major service diversions, a new road infrastructure, car parking, play areas and footpaths. Sustainable technologies have been utilised where possible and include a £1.7m biomass district heating system, which is estimated to deliver carbon reductions between 40 and 80 per cent.

Each block also benefits from 100mm thick insulated render and draught-proof aluminium double glazed windows, whilst apartments come complete with energy efficient light fittings and ventilation equipment and sanitary ware to promote low water usage. These measures will not only help Your Homes Newcastle to meet the government’s 2050 target of an 80% reduction in carbon emissions, but will also reduce residents’ fuel bills.

Ian Burnett, Managing Director Wates Living Space commented: “This was a major redevelopment project for Newcastle and one that is bringing about the sustainable regeneration of a strategic gateway into the city centre. It is clearly evident that the transformation is already having a real impact upon the community, with the physical improvements acting as a catalyst for improved living standards, quality of life and employment prospects. This has been a challenging but extremely rewarding project for us and its success is testimony to the partnership approach taken by all of the stakeholders – an approach which is unfortunately being lost in the current dash for lowest price tendering which cannot deliver schemes in the same manner.”

To download this press release as a pdf click here

Categories: regeneration, affordable housing, north east

Tags: Riverside Dene, Your Homes Newastle