Low bridges and dodgy sewers
Trust member Stephen Hills recalls some of the civil engineering challenges that accompanied the construction of Bradford’s Southway Park development.
My name is Stephen Hills and I was born in Minis toughen in sand Ines tokington Avenue for 20 years, close to both the Spencer Moulton playing fields and the area that became the Southway Park development.
I left Fitzmaurice School in 1965 and studied building construction, becoming an Incorporated Member of the Institute of Building. During my career I was regional engineer with Barratt Developments, based at Bristol, from 1978-1987. This was during the period when Barratts acquired Thorner Homes, which had gone into liquidation part way through the Southway Park construction.
Previously, Thorner had bought out the original developer, English and Continental Homes, which had itself gone into liquidation during the construction of Fitzmaurice Close, Southway Park. At the time there was consternation because Barratts immediately put the price of the houses up substantially. However, the houses continued to sell at the higher price - suggesting that they had been undervalued by Thorner Homes.
Barratts inherited various construction problems created by both English and Continental Homes and Thorner Homes. For example, when I started work with Barratts, Palairet Close was in the process of construction with some properties sold. I carried out an inspection of the site and was surprised to walk along Palairet Close to find a parked car on its owner's drive, but sticking out over the full width of the footpath!
Alarm bells rang - so we carried out a land survey which revealed the roadway in Palairet Close was 6ft out. The discrepancy required Barratts to buy land from purchasers' front gardens on one side of the road and give back 6ft on the other side. This also involved moving all the services: water, gas, electricity, telephone lines and streetlights. This was of course a costly operation but carried out following meetings with the purchasers and Barratt's managing director. But the development was still very profitable and successful for Barratts.
Another problem concerned the canal bridge, which was designed to have a certain headroom for the canal barges and narrowboats passing beneath it. However, the spine road - Moulton Drive - was designed and built to go over the canal at a lower level. Consequently the remaining part of the road had to be lifted to pass over the canal bridge. You can still feel the slight bump in the road now!
A number of issues with the infrastructure works arose from the fact that Moulton Drive, from Trowbridge Road to the canal bridge, was was not adopted (where responsibility for a road and its maintenance is taken over by the relevant authority).
When the development was first designed and approved, the adopting authorities were Bradford Urban District Council for the sewers and Wiltshire County Council for the highways. By the time Barratts arrived on the scene Wessex Water had taken over the sewer adoption procedure and introduced higher standards of inspections, including CCTV surveys of all sewers. These surveys revealed many serious faults - including the collapse of the 3ft diameter sewer beneath the spine road.
At this point, Barratts considered two options: complete replacement of the 3ft sewer or a revolutionary repair system, which required a large-diameter plastic tube forced under pressure into the sewer and heated to a temperature whereby the melting plastic sealed all the cracks and holes. Barratts considered both options, but Wessex Water would not guarantee adoption if the second option was used. Therefore option one was chosen - which entailed closing the spine road for several months to carry out the works.
Many of the foul and storm water connections were wrongly connected to completed properties, causing smells inside the homes. Barratt's had to trace the connections by placing dyes into the sewers to check which were working correctly. Where they were wrong, Barratts had to excavate front gardens and reconnect the sewers.
I recall very good relations with Wiltshire County Council and Wessex Water regarding adoption of the various phases of the development. (I also remember that the Wiltshire Clerk of Works was the welly throwing champion of England.) Landscaping also came into the construction remit: Barratts was asked to build the wooden steps from the spine road to the canal which are still there today. The show complex was very attractive and the sales office was a great success, with good sales until the completion of the development.
The adopting authorities were fussy about adopting phases because they would then have to take on the maintenance costs So until final adoption Barratts was required to cut the grass on verges, and was responsible for the maintenance of all roads, including snow clearing in the winter.
Barratts inherited the existing Section 106 Planning Agreement, S38 Highways Agreements, S104 Agreements, S 33 Open Spaces Agreements. There were at least eight phases on the development, which meant a total bond (to make sure that any works are completed satisfactorily before handover) of over £1 million.
I left Barratts as regional engineer in 1987. At that time I believe Phase 8, the last phase on the whole site, was being constructed and the due process of adoption was continued in an efficient manner.
