21 Oct 09

The tallest building in the military town of Aldershot is being demolished to make way for modern junior ranks single living accommodation. The Defence Food Services School, after dominating the skyline of the town for more than 40 years, will soon become a pile of rubble under Project Allenby/Connaught, the 35 year £8 billion PFI project being delivered by Aspire Defence on behalf of the MoD.

The Defence Food Services School, formally the Army School of Catering and fondly known by its nickname, ‘Custard Towers’, will take approximately 12 weeks to demolish.

Although significant because of its size, position and history, the 50 metre tall, 12 storeys high tower block makes way for a new soldiers’ village providing accommodation for over 1,000, together with leisure and recreation facilities within the St Omer barracks. Across Aldershot Garrison alone, a total of 137 buildings are being demolished, 105 brand new buildings built and a further 36 buildings refurbished.

Hughes and Salvidge, demolition and remediation contractors, are carrying out the work on behalf of Aspire Defence, providing the Ultra High Reach Excavator which is ‘nibbling’ the building to the ground. The machine, which is one of only two in the country, which is capable of operating to a height of 67 metres, is tearing down the building piece by piece. This is being undertaken with extreme care for safety reasons – the construction team in Aldershot has just celebrated over one million safe man hours worked – and also because the site is adjacent to the Basingstoke Canal, a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Sustainability is at the heart of Project Allenby/Connaught and an extensive range of environmental measures is in place including dust suppression techniques where water jets are fitted to the pulveriser used to strip the material off the tower and a specialised water blower is in place to spray the area. Dust monitoring stations have also been installed along the canal. Bird netting was installed in the tower during the nesting season as well as bat exclusion tubes to allow the bats to exit but not enter the building. Alternative ‘homes’ have been provided in the new buildings and in the trees adjacent to the canal.

Approximately 300 tonnes of general waste will be created by the demolition and will be sorted and recycled on site; 200 tonnes of ferrous metals will be recycled and approximately 9000m3 (2 tonnes per cubic metre) of crushed concrete will be re-used on site. In total around 97% of waste materials will be recycled.

“It is exciting to see the years of planning starting to take shape in St Omer with the creation of the Junior Ranks Village. The construction of the Physical and Recreational Training Centre, pub and Junior Ranks Single Living Accommodation has started and when the tower block has gone the whole area will soon be opened up to allow us to complete construction. Aspire Defence is proud to be making soldiers lives’ better,” said Rhod McGregor, Senior Project Manager, Aspire Defence.

General Officer Commanding 4th Division, General Lamont Kirkland added, “The demolition of the tower is hugely significant in a number of ways. It is the final piece of a major demolition programme here on the St Omer site, where construction of the new soldiers’ village is already underway, as well as demonstrating the Army’s commitment to providing modern single living and working accommodation for our soldiers. There is still much to be done here in Aldershot but I look forward to seeing further progress in the coming months as the regeneration of the Garrison continues.”

Aspire Defence has been making a visible impact on Aldershot military town over the last couple of years – but the focus for construction will firmly be on the garrison over the coming months with an intense building programme already underway. The buildings being provided range from en-suite single living accommodation, diners, gyms, recreation and leisure facilities, education and training facilities, offices and technical buildings along with regimental headquarters.

Across the entire Aldershot Garrison a total of more than 2,400 single en-suite bed spaces will be delivered across the different sites which make up Aldershot Garrison.