After getting off to something of a shaky start, Deptford station contractor Volker Fitzpatrick has been making a big effort to rectify the situation and inform residents in the immediate area about the work which will be carried out over the coming months. Flyers have now been delivered to those properties that were left out on the previous round, with promises that they will be kept in the loop as work progresses.
Some of the construction work has to be undertaken at night, but the contractor has committed to putting up notices at the station two weeks ahead of any out of hours work. They are also promising that they will do everything possible to minimise the amount of noise that these out of hours operations will generate, by trying to plan the noisy works during the daytime as far as they can.
The night-time works include installing the foundations for the new station canopies (April-May 2011), installing the new canopies (Aug-Sept 2011) and removing the old canopies and glass (Nov-Dec 2011). Normal site hours will be Mon-Fri 8am-5pm and Saturday 8am-1pm, although they are also allowed an hour each side of these for set up and shut down. Naturally there's going to be increased traffic on the high street, Ffinch Street and Edward Street with deliveries, plant and materials going in and out.
The contractor is a member of the Considerate Constructors Scheme, which means they are committed to comply with the CCS code of practice which you can find here.
If you want more information about the project, or are not happy about something, your first stop should be the project manager Ken Falano, whose phone number is 07717 275264. There is also a complaints procedure on the CCS website, which you may wish to follow if you do not receive a satisfactory response.
The planned completion date for the project is 2 May 2012.
4 comments:
Have you managed to see any images of the station? I've seen all the old ones that have been knocking about for years, and was wondering if there had been any changes and exactly what is proposed.
I'm not a great fan of the renders I did see. It all looked very basic without any sort of design flair. Very functional. I hope something interesting is attempted, and not unilitarian grey canopies are all we have to look forward to considering the cost is around 6 million (I think!).
If not then most must be going on redeveloping the ramp, which is no bad thing if it creates a lovely little square.
The only images that have been publicised are the ones that have been knocking around for several years, so I'm assuming that's what we are getting. The six million pound contract is for the construction of the new station, installation of new stairs and lifts, demolition of the existing station and refurbishment of the arches under the platforms. It does not involve any work on the carriage ramp, as far as I understand it. That's all part of the application that Cathedral Group is expected to be making in the near future.
To me, six million does not sound like a lot for all this work, although I couldn't find anything comparable on an initial search. Considering that a fair bit of night working is required, along with all the difficulties of building around a live station and a busy town centre, there are bound to be extra costs involved. The architect for the station was also responsible for the new stations on the East London Line, which I think are very nicely done (in my opinion utilitarian does not have to mean ugly) although naturally the process of getting from architect's vision to finished article involves many obstacles that can have an influence on this. I guess we'll soon find out...!
Ahh thanks for that it's cleared a few things up.
I had no idea the original station building was going! I thought that as the oldest station in London it would be protected, though it has little architectural merit. It will open up a lot of space. It would be a nice place for somewhere to get food and drink under the arches. Ideally a nice independant will open. I hope it's not a bookies and starbucks!
Also I didn't realise the ramp was a seperate development. Hopefully Cathedral get a move on. Alot of their plans have ben on the drawing board for years.
It's good to see work started so quickly. Every time I've passed on the train this week there's been lots of people on site between 8 and 9am.
I don't believe the station building is original, it's the carriage ramp which is the oldest part of the station, apart from the viaduct itself.
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