Lakesmere Extends İn The Energy From Waste Sector With Contract For New Riverside Waste Management Facility İn London

Lakesmere has been appointed to design and install an innovative building envelope solution to a new riverside waste management facility in Belvedere in the London borough of Bexley, which is the largest of its kind in the UK. Waste from Central London will be brought in by barges along the River Thames as well as by road and the creation of this pioneering facility is expected to make a significant contribution to London’s landfill diversion targets.

The new building, with its attractive Kalzip ‘ski slope’ roof, is also indicative of the growing trend to move away from the bleak industrial structures of the past to create aesthetically pleasing buildings that complement the local environment. The new Belvedere facility was subject to a lengthy seven year planning procedure and Lakesmere was heavily involved in specification process from a very early stage.

Close collaboration with civil contractor Costain and design team Jacobs, proved vital throughout the delivery of this project to ensure that the product specification and design of the building envelope not only satisfied the strict planning requirements but also met the necessary building regulations. The extensive building envelope package that Lakesmere was appointed to install included Kalzip aluminium roofing, Kingspan wall cladding, Kalwal glazing system, Par louvers and bespoke fabrications from Sotech.

The riverside location of the Belvedere project also presented numerous logistical challenges in terms of site access. Safety, as always, was also a key priority and the Lakesmere site teams completed specialist training prior to the commencement of works. Owing to the sheer scale of the building, access via mechanical means was limited and so it was necessary for Lakesmere to identify alternative methods of safe installation. Utilising fall protection systems from Eurosafe Solutions, a combination of mast climber and man baskets, which Lakesmere used for the first time for this project, enabled the team to complete the installation safely and accurately.