City of London Corporation
The City of London Corporation (CoL) has proposed a landmark development at the Former Barking Reach Power Station Site in Dagenham. The Power Station was constructed in 1992 and has been left unused since its closure in 2014. The site started the decommissioning phase in 2018 in preparation of its future development. The CoL plans to move and consolidate the three main wholesale food markets in London; Billingsgate (fish), Smithfield (meat and poultry) and New Spitalfields (fruit, vegetables and flowers), onto a single site to create the country’s largest wholesale food destination.
The markets will be built using sustainable materials and state of the art technology in food logistics which will provide an economic boost to the area through new jobs and businesses. In 2023, John F Hunt Regeneration Ltd (JFHR) were appointed by CoL to undertake a package of surcharging works across the 42-acre plot.
Scope of Works
JFHR’s work involved the construction of a 44,000T pre-surcharging embankment trial over a small area of the site using a British Standard EN 16907-2:2018 G1, S1 material. Historically, the site is laden with a pre-existing dense pile grid, where traditional methods of construction using a suspended slab over new piles were not suitable. The objective of the trial surcharging works was to determine whether a ground bearing raft slab using the existing pile foundations could demonstrate suitable conditions to bear the capacity of the new proposed superstructures. Once constructed, the embankment and underlying geology are then monitored by JFHR using specialist equipment over a period of 12-14 months to inform the design team how the ground will react over varying foundation types to determine its viability to support the new markets.
Supporting the Circular Economy
As part of JFHR’s commitment to sustainability in the industry, JFHR saw an opportunity to reduce carbon emissions by challenging the specification’s primary G1,S1 material to a recycled Type 1 aggregate. The contract specification for the import of material was to use a primary aggregate which would have been sourced through dredging the seabed in the North Sea or importing from a quarry. By challenging the design specification through a technical submission to the designers at the preconstruction stage regarding the import of material, it resulted in a material change to the specification that was still suitable for construction, was more widely available, and was in line with circular economy principles.
Due to the site’s prime location in a predominantly industrial area, the recycled Type 1 aggregate was imported through a local supplier (<1 mile from the site entrance) using locally sourced recycled materials (within 5 miles of the site).
Carbon Reduction
JFHR stated its commitment, alongside the Client in supporting the City’s Climate Action Targets which sets out to achieve net zero carbon, build climate resilience and champion sustainable growth. By using a material that was more readily available in the UK and had excellent whole life carbon credentials, it supported the City of London Corporation’s Climate Action Strategy.
The revised specification:
- Reduced GHG emissions through the reduction in mileage transporting the material to site.
- Encouraged partnerships with local suppliers, bringing more work to the local economy.
- Empowered sustainable change by using locally sourced materials.
- Supported the circular economy through the use of a recycled local aggregate.
- Increased the efficiency of the programme, resulting in the installation of the embankment finishing two weeks ahead of the programme.
The robust criteria was achieved across the whole embankment platform using locally sourced material and ultimately saved 343 tonnes of CO₂. A 75% reduction compared to the original specification.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals that this project contributed to:
Our proposal to change the import specification to a recycled secondary aggregate saved 343 tonnes of CO2 emissions, which is a reduction of 76% from the original specification.
