Battersea Power Station

 

Completion date: June 2022

Client: Battersea Power Station Development Corporation and Battersea Project Land Company Limited

Project value: £80m+

 

Battersea Power Station, one of London’s most iconic landmarks, recently reopened to the public after an eight-year renovation project that transformed this important heritage building into an exciting new mixed-use neighbourhood. After a challenging tender process, blu-3 was appointed to undertake utility works and internal enabling works within Battersea Power Station. Over the course of the development, blu-3 was awarded further civil engineering works packages, culminating in Malaysia Square, the impressive new public open space at the southern entrance of the Grade II* Listed building designed by renowned architects WEA.

 

The project

The overall multi-billion-pound project at Battersea Power Station has turned a derelict Grade II* Listed building and its 42-acre surroundings into a modern, multi-use complex, comprising a range of homes, shops, restaurants and leisure venues, along with over 7.5 hectares of public space, all served by the new Battersea Power Station underground station, on the Northern Line. The architects’ vision for Malaysia Square was inspired by the famed Mulu Caves in Sarawek, renowned for the largest network of limestone caves on earth, while also celebrating Malaysian culture and heritage.

 

The brief

blu-3’s civil engineering experts delivered extensive and complex enabling works including site clearance, demolition and diversions of existing services, along with the provision of new surface drainage, services and ducts. The height of the existing ground level needed to be reduced, which led to further works in the disposal of non-hazardous excavated material. Alongside the hard and soft landscaping installed by blu-3, the company provided surface and ground water management, and haul roads, two approach roads and bridge abutment were also constructed.

-3 undertook the civil engineering and hard and soft landscaping works to the final, permanent access road into Battersea Power Station – Pump House Lane – which included re-configuring the existing road layout and installing new utilities. blu-3 also managed the infrastructure improvements at the nearby Queens Circus roundabout, installing traffic-controlled ‘cycle friendly’ lanes, segregated from other traffic; the first of its kind in London.

Across the whole project, blu-3 also provided Building Information Modelling (BIM), the 3D model-based process which creates and manages all information surrounding design assets, ensuring improved collaboration, shared data and project delivery that is on time and on budget.

 

Challenges and solutions

This complex project created a number of challenges for blu-3’s experts.