MEDWAY Council and the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) have awarded civil engineering joint venture Edmund Nuttall/Van Oord the main contract to carry out infrastructure works at the flagship regeneration site Rochester Riverside. BAM's UK division Edmund Nuttall/Van Oord will be responsible for building a new river wall around the Rochester Riverside development, as well as remediating the land and raising the site to protect it from flooding.
Medway Council and SEEDA have also appointed Halcrow Group Ltd as the employers' agent at Rochester Riverside, to supervise the infrastructure work as it is carried out.
Portfolio Holder for Strategic Development and Economic Growth Cllr Jane Chitty said: "The appointments of both these companies is great news for Rochester Riverside and we're now looking forward to them progressing work on site.
"Rochester Riverside is a key project within the regeneration of Medway."
SEEDA Project Director Chatham Maritime, Jonathan Sadler, added: "We are delighted to announce both Nuttall/Van Oord's and Halcrow's appointment to the scheme and look forward to them starting work at the site.
"This brings the exciting regeneration plans for this key site ever closer and we can now start to envisage the vibrant, mixed-use development we are going to create here."
Earlier this year Rochester Riverside was awarded £42.2 million by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, following on from earlier cash awards for the scheme.
The appointments of Nuttall/Van Oord and Halcrow follow a meeting of the council's Development Control Committee in June, when members were minded to approve two planning applications for the site.
Submitted by Medway Council and SEEDA, the first application was for outline planning permission and it included:
- up to 2,000 homes
- 7,800 m² of retail, food and drink space
- 12,000 m² for business use
- 3,600 m² of live-work floor space
- a hotel site
- community facilities, including a new primary school
- open space, landscaping and parking, including a market site, multi-storey car park and coach park and riverside walk.
The committee was also minded to approve the second application for the preliminary infrastructure work on the new flood wall, land remediation and land-raising. The new community will eventually include about 4,000 people.
Medway Council has now sent the applications to the Government Office for the South East (GOSE) saying it is minded to approve them. A response is awaited.
Source: Edmund Nuttall
