Richard Dobson provided the context: “The whole area was industrial pre-war. Obviously, East London got bombed heavily because of the docks and parts of Caning Town became derelict as a result, then some housing and industrial were added - so, you've got layers of layers and contamination.
“So, we ended up with a site that ECF had been working on for quite some time. We've got a 400 KV power line running through the site. We've got contaminated land, we've got bomb risk, we had a Thames Water sewer, we're constrained on height by London City Airport. So historically it is quite complex.
“But what we’re able to do now is on-site remediation. In effect, you take the contaminated ground, on site, and there's machinery that can work through it. So, the real contaminants can be taken off-site, but then you put back what is now low-level contaminated soil which is perfectly buildable and ideal to protect the rest of the building required, making sure that contamination doesn't spread. But previously the only way to deal with this was to get it all off site and the cost of doing that would have been tens of millions. The technology has definitely moved on.”
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There are always time pressures. Richard Dobson said that Morgan Sindall only had nine months to get ready for site. He said: “It probably wasn't quite enough but we achieved it.
It probably wasn't quite enough but we just about did it. It takes very technical people working extremely hard to unlock all those things and figure out how you can construct the buildings as well. A substation, a single BT cable or a single fibre optic can block a site for a prolonged period. You have to be very tenacious individuals.
Pat Boyle commented: “From a construction point of view, it’s a tough job. So, the deployment of things like prefabricated cladding panels that de-risk the site, in terms of deliveries, materials, labour, they make it a viable project, and one that we're prepared to deal with.”
Unsurprisingly for London, height is a feature of Canning Town and Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) can have an important role in making a difficult project work. As Richard Dobson said: “If you’re going high, you need MMC from the viability point of view.” An element of MMC and off-site construction gives a certainty to timelines in long complex projects, he said. You want to build as quickly and safely as you can, like any project.
Would 50% affordable housing have been deliverable there without modular construction? Duncan Cumberland replied: “I think a combination of things. Morgan Sindall Construction trimmed about four months off where the competition has been in terms of that programme.
It’s also the expertise, and it's the price that eventually we all landed at. Together, these factors have enabled the viability of the scheme.”
Neil Murray commented: “It's the virtuous circle, isn't it? You unlock the value in the site because you're able to deploy effective construction technologies, and you end up with something that opens up more affordable housing. But you’re also able to put the amenity in with the park. And the ultimate value of everything is much more than the sum of the parts.”
The Ukraine war has brought about major supply chain issues, with materials such as terracotta hugely affected. As Richard Dobson recounted, “for two or three months, it was pretty crazy in terms of volatility of procurement. We found out very quickly that more things than people might think originate from Ukraine, and we had to quickly establish what was needed.
You remove the most significant part of that from Europe and it has a significant impact. In terms of the large-scale terracotta panels, we tried with another supplier but couldn’t replicate so had to split the panels in half and get them reapproved by planners."
