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Grounds Maintenance, Landscape Creation, Arboriculture, Sports Surfacing, Parks management, IOS Managing Safely Training, Ecology & Biodiversity, Grass cutting, Horticulture, Street Cleaning, Soft Landscaping, Hard Landscaping
Our Services
idverde provides a wide range of green services, including grounds maintenance, landscape creation, and advice services, to both private and public sectors across the UK.
Nine Elms
idverde was asked by our client to play a key role in the multi-billion pound regeneration of a previously out of bounds section of Nine Elms, Battersea, on London’s South Bank.
Background
idverde was asked by our client to play a key role in the multi-billion pound regeneration of a previously out of bounds section of Nine Elms, Battersea, on London’s South Bank. Our client is creating one of around 20 separate yet interconnected developments on a 3km stretch of the Thames, some of which has not been open to the public for the past 90 years.
Our Role
idverde, working with architectural consultancy Camlins, is handling the £1.5 million landscaping element of our clients complex of one, two and three bedroom luxury apartments located in the busy riverside London district on the site of an old warehouse. idverde is creating a podium, two rooftop gardens, public and private squares and footpaths using granite paving, top soil, trees, plants, street furniture and play equipment. It is also creating a swale to carry away excess water.
The grounds form part of a car-free ‘linear park’ containing footpaths and cycle lanes which will run along the entire 3km stretch of the regenerated embankment, making Nine Elms one of the greenest districts on the South Bank.
Challenges
The project presents particularly acute logistical challenges, not least because of its busy city location which contains many public transport links, cyclist and pedestrian lanes. It is also next to a big superstore and busy junction and numerous social activities take place along the waterfront.
Traffic restrictions and non-existent storage space make extremely tight delivery deadlines essential. All deliveries have to be precisely timed to ensure one of two tower cranes on site is available to deal with it immediately.
The extremely tight organisation is handled by a dedicated contracts manager and co-ordinator who ensures all deliveries are scheduled as requested by the site team and oversee constant communication between all parties.
Weekly site management meetings ensure all parties are aware of all aspects of the project at all times and the community has been kept engaged through press releases and open day site visits.
Amendments to the build programme timetable and podium design and a redesign of the swale area all meant logistics needed to be regularly adjusted. Additionally, idverde accommodated restrictions imposed by public events in Battersea Park by extending working hours and allocating additional teams to ensure it stayed ahead of the schedule.
Results
The wider 195 hectare semi-derelict formerly industrial site will eventually contain 20,000 new homes, restaurants, public squares, cultural venues, schools and shops just minutes away from central London. Two new tube stations at Nine Elms and Battersea are set to open on the Northern Line in 2020 and the area will also house the US Embassy and New Covent Garden Market.
The largest regeneration zone in central London, Nine Elms adjoins other parts of the South Bank transformed from their previously industrial persona into iconic locations – such as the Tate Modern, the London Eye and the National Film Theatre – opening up a further stretch of previously unattainable riverbank.