A new 450-bed five-star hotel forms part of the Greenwich Peninsula redevelopment. Connected to the hotel is a 2000-person banquet and conference centre, with roof trusses that span over 40m to provide the largest clear-span ballroom in London. The development also included a private, 25-storey residential development.
Fairhurst was engaged directly by the developer and then novated to the successful Design and Build Contractor. The site is a former coal-burning power station with a 100m diameter tar pit directly below the conference centre. Remediation strategies and technical approval for the groundworks required a detailed study of the site’s history and physical investigation work over several months.
The site is also located between the existing LUL Jubilee Line and the Blackwall Tunnel. A full AIP submission was required to justify the development in relation to the Blackwall Tunnel. The corner of the conference centre cantilevers over the exclusion zone around the tunnel.
Fairhurst worked closely with the design team to value engineer the superstructure. The construction programme demanded a high level of off-site fabrication with cladding and bathroom pods quickly agreed as the most economical construction option to complete the project within two years.
A post tensioned concrete slab solution was developed to accommodate the recessed bathroom pods and to provide a ‘stiff’ slab edge for the stone cladding panels.
Driven piles were designed to minimise the soil arisings and significantly reduce the amount of contaminated material to be removed from the site.