Leicester Square

Description of Works

FM Conway’s Civil Engineering division has delivered a high-quality public realm improvement project on Leicester Square, helping to transform the area as part of a wider large-scale development project for a new hotel complex.

Working collaboratively across our Civil Engineering, Consultancy, Lighting, Aggregates & Asphalt and Surfacing divisions, FM Conway’s self-delivery capability meant that we could deliver a range of elements across one project, including laying new surfacing and decorative paving around the hotel, as well as installing new drainage, kerbs, lighting and HVM security bollards.

Services used on this project Major Projects

Delivering Innovation

As the project featured in such a high-profile location, it was vital that the environment around the new building was designed to incorporate high-quality materials befitting of Leicester Square’s prominence.

The scheme involved laying 1,300m2 of 125mm thick granite paving, with 387mm x 640mm slabs in combinations of three shades of grey and two different patterns around the entire complex, extending the full width of St Martin’s Street on the east side and Panton Street on the north. Plus, 200m2 of York Stone paving was laid to match that of the surrounding streets, alongside 500m2 of asphalt surfacing on Orange Street to the south and Whitcomb Street to the west.

To coincide with the surfacing, the project also required new drainage works on all four sides of the building. FM Conway’s in-house Consultancy team designed the temporary works required to safely dig down 3m, before carrier drainage could be installed to tie in with the existing gullies, as well as some deep drainage connections to link into the existing sewer network.

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The client agreed with our proposed solution and we were able to save them time and money as a result.

Contracts Manager at FM Conway - Paul Williams

Challenges and Solutions

Thanks to FM Conway’s knowledge and experience of recycling materials, the teams were also able to present the client with an efficient and cost-effective solution for the area’s new road surfaces, by planing out and re-laying just the top 100mm of asphalt binder and surface course.

“When we started to take up the existing paving and asphalt, the intention was to dig down to the Type 1 subbase. But we got some compaction tests done to check the suitability of this material, and where it was OK, we laid on top of it, rather than taking it out,” said Contracts Manager, Paul Williams.

“The client agreed with our proposed solution and we were able to save them time and money as a result.”

Following this the Lighting division installed five new streetlights and six new lanterns mounted on brackets on the wall of the new building, before HVM was installed in the form of six RhinoGuard Shallow Mount Foundation Bollards on St Martin’s Street. This not only greatly raised the security of the area, but also kept the aesthetic intact by matching the other access points into the Square.

Outcomes

Thanks to a showcase of FM Conway’s self-delivery capability and working collaboratively across its multiple divisions, the project resulted in the successful delivery of a high-profile public realm project for the City of London.