Water & Wastewater Treatment

www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | november 2015 | 27 Project focus Sewer networks Newport retail development benefits from sewer makeover Project focus T he new Friars Walk retail devel- opment in the heart of Newport city centre is the lynchpin of the Newport 2020 development plan, a masterplan of citywide schemes and projects which will invest £2BN in this economically deprived region over the next twenty years, in order to deliver a more prosperous and vibrant city. Simon ThomaS, managing DirecTor asseT inTernaTional ● new sewer system required under landmark retail centre ● site's complex history meant complex subterranean infrastructure ● Twin 750mm plastic pipeline supplied in combined sewer system retail units, a cinema, food quarter, bus station and a 350-space car park. The Friars Walk scheme has been on the drawing board for some time, however, construction work only commenced in early 2014. The site was initially cleared of buildings and structures with a number of controlled explosions, principally of the nine-storey Capitol car park. The demolition of buildings in John Frost Square marked the first phase of the Friars Walk development, and paved the way for principal contractors Bowmer & Kirkland to move in. The site of the new Friars Walk development has a long and tangled history which impacted on the groundworks programme. Up until the early nineteenth century, the site was occupied by terraced buildings, a corporation yard, and the remains of a refectory and friary. The original friary walls are located in the north of the site, which influenced the development's name. The site's river- side location also means that several Wharfs have historically been located adjacent to the eastern site bound- ary. In the seventies and eighties the site was progressively redeveloped to comprise a bus station, two multi- storey car parks, retail premises, an engineering works, a number of ware- houses and an electricity depot. The result was not only an unattractive blight on the city landscape above ground, but also a subterranean in- frastructure nightmare that needed to be addressed before the clean modern architectural lines of Friars Walk could start to take shape. One of the major early considera- tions was the fact that two major sew- ers, each five metres deep, crossed the site, which needed to be replaced with one new sewer during the con- struction programme. The sewers ran directly across what was soon to be the main retail mall. However, such was the strict project timetable that the relocation of the sewers needed to be done at the same time as the commencement of the steel erection programme which formed the frame of the development. Necessity meant that early on the sewer work took pri- ority, meaning that the erection of the retail area had to be phased around the sewer relocation works. As well as meeting the stringent project time constraints, groundworks contractor Churngold required a sewer diversion pipeline that would not only be able to divert the existing sewer system around the area, but also to accommodate the sewerage In partnership with Newport City Council, in 2012 Queensberry Real Estate secured planning consent for a new 390,000 sq — shopping centre to be constructed in the heart of the city centre, in between the River Usk and Newport's existing main retail zone. The Friars Walk development is set to open in November 2015 and will provide a department store, five major large diameter Weholite pipes being delivered to Friars Walk.

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