Howard Civil Engineering are pleased to have delivered a £5m package at a prestigious new mixed-use development in the heart of York.

Hudson Quarter is a contemporary 162,000² site comprising three residential buildings with reinforced concrete frames and one steel-framed commercial block set around a landscaped central courtyard.

Howard Civil Engineering were awarded the groundworks and concrete frames package in March 2019 by our longstanding client, Caddick Construction. Having supported Caddick Construction on many previous projects, the three apartment blocks and the concrete core in the commercial block at Hudson Quarter were our first reinforced concrete frames for this client.

Replacing a prominent 1960s office building in the centre of York, this site had a constrained city-centre footprint.

“The Hudson Quarter scheme was a great project to be involved with,” said Howard Civil Engineering contracts manager James Page. “It was very challenging in terms of co-ordination and logistics due to the constraints of the site and in most instances, it was one way in and one way out. We had to opt for smaller plant than we would usually use on such schemes, but that was the nature of the works and had to be planned for accordingly.”

In addition to the concrete frames, Howard Civil Engineering also delivered hard landscaping around the central courtyard.

“We had a fast-paced external landscaping package to deliver post-Christmas 2020, and I believe the weekly progress and coordination meetings we held were an integral part of our team’s successful product delivery,” James continued. “We had to reconsider and amend our plans on some occasions to suit other trades on site, all of which was done collaboratively with our client, Caddick Construction.”

“We have a great relationship with Caddick, and this has definitely been beneficial both to the quality of the final product and the time frame in which we were able to deliver it. Long hours and weekend works were required at times, but the Howard Civil Engineering team pulled out all the stops and the end result is something I am very proud of.”

Jason Simms, project manager at Caddick Construction, said: “Howard Civil Engineering have worked safely and tirelessly to deliver a superb end product on time despite the challenges of the pandemic. We look forward to working with Howard Civil Engineering again.”

Read more on the full scope of works for this project here.