Halcrow’s work on this regeneration project for Northampton contributed to two industry awards and significant cost savings for the client.
We were appointed by the Homes and Communities Agency (formerly English Partnerships) to design and manage the procurement and construction of the Cross Valley Link Road project, linking the A4500 and the A45 across the River Nene flood plain, west of Northampton.
This strategic project will boost regeneration in large parts of Northampton by putting in place the physical infrastructure needed to transform under-used, poor-quality land into high-value development land.
Our ecologists were involved from the outset. Environmental protection methods and extensive consultation with Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust were vital parts of the scheme, to protect the surrounding area from the impact of construction.
Halcrow managed the tendering process online, providing secure control of documentation and achieving a saving of around £50,000 compared with the traditional, paper-based tendering process.
Project director Trevor Rackley applauds the scheme’s success: “As well as exceeding our client’s requirements on environmental performance by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating under the civil engineering environmental quality assessment and award scheme (CEEQUAL), our project team has managed to balance sometimes conflicting engineering and environmental objectives.”
In addition, the project was overall winner of the ICE East Midlands Merit Awards 2009.