15 October 2017
New Salt Barn, Ower
- New Salt Barn, Ower
- Enterprisemouchel
Hutchings & Carter were appointed to carry out the enabling works, civil engineering and groundworks for the largest strategic salt barn in the country. This c£500k project was challenging from several perspectives but probably the greatest of these were the high water table and the contract programme. The works involved excavation for and the creation of a foundation for the new clear span circular domed building to house the counties strategic holding of highway winter salt within. The high water table added to the instability of the ground that we had to work in and on. There was deep surface water drainage that we had to install as part of our contract which necessitated some sophisticated dewatering equipment and trench support in order to complete the works.
We also demolished a redundant barn building, installed a new block paved parking area adjacent to the dome and a new re-aligned main access road into the highways depot for all traffic accessing the site to use. The initial visit to get the site ready for the specialist dome building company was completed by our team on schedule and in only seven weeks from site occupation. Once the salt dome building had been erected and made watertight we returned to complete our contract which included the final asphalt surfacing around the building and road access and the completion of perimeter land drainage. We also formed earth bunds around the building and then planted these with a variety of shrubs and trees to help soften the impact of the new facility. We completed the contract, which included significant additional works, within programme and within the contract sum agreed.