Two Rivers Shopping Centre

As surfacing specialists in the retail environment, OUTCO was approached by our client, one of the UK’s biggest property management companies, to complete construction, maintenance and repair works at the Two Rivers Shopping Centre in Staines. A busy car park that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week reaching an average of 4,000 customers a day.

The busy car park has a charge for visitors between the hours of 7am until 6pm, as the works closed small sections of the car park it was vital these works were completed as quickly as possible and reopened to minimise the loss of income derived from the car parks activities.

The site was segregated into 21 phases and would take eight weeks to complete, ensuring the works could be completed as quickly as possible with minimal disruption, the site split into three area, North, South and West car park.

The works incorporated surfacing, line marking, drainage and a large civils element in the redevelopment of the entrance to the south and west car park, creating a new roundabout and entrance resulting in additional parking space and the re-positioning of an iconic statue.

Due to the size of the site and the live environment, OUTCO would be working within, we phased our works throughout the project and used a traffic management systems and one way systems to ensure the safety of the public and OUTCO staff. A critical element that was planned meticulously prior to the project due to the number of people using the car park, the number of OUTCO staff on site and the number of vehicles that would be regularly in and out of the segregated areas.

Our operations began with a drainage survey to over 250m of drainpipe across all three areas of the car park, investigating the status of the drainage channels around the site and ensuring they are clear and functioning correctly prior to laying the new surface. Problems with drainage can then be rectified prior to laying a new car park, particularly key if the problems would require excavation. Through our CCTV investigations additional works to repair 35m of drain pipe was required, however using no-dig technology to repair the damaged pipes ensured we minimised disruption on-site during the repair without the need for costly and timely excavation.

This element of the project was conducted out of hours through the night to minimise any disruption to the stores. Phases were agreed with the client prior to the project commencing ensuring smaller areas could be planed, paved, relined and reopened within 12 hours before moving onto the next section.

The surfacing incorporated a new binder course, a layer of geotextile membrane used to strengthen the surfacing structure to prolong the life of the car park and a top layer of the surface course.

This project also included a large civils element throughout, not only with the installation of new kerbing and Aco drainage channels across the site, but the construction of a new roundabout at the entranceway to the South and West car parks. The new roundabout would ease congestion while providing additional parking spaces to the shopping centre resulting in additional income. The construction required prior groundworks to move an iconic statue known as the Water Sprites Statue to a new location near the Vue cinema. The block paving and street lights around the location of the new roundabout had to be excavated before construction could commence, the construction of the roundabout was completed after seven weeks.

The final aspect of this project was the installation of six electric charging points that serve twelve parking spaces. Installed in the South car park the charging points have clear bay markings finished with a green marking paint.

The project was completed with zero business closures and to schedule.