Kelston Sparkes is delighted to confirm that it has been appointed by Agratas – the global battery business of the Tata Group – to complete the groundworks for the company’s multi-billion-pound gigafactory at the Gravity Smart Campus site near Bridgwater, Somerset.
Kelston Sparkes is no stranger to the site and conditions having worked for Gravity for two years undertaking preliminary groundworks on the land of the former Royal Ordnance factory. Acquired by BAE in the 1970’s as a production site, it was ultimately closed in 2008 and bought by Gravity in 2017 for development into a high-tech business park.
The groundworks contract secured with Agratas covers two thirds of the Gravity site and runs for a further two years. The contract provides groundworks, earthworks and a huge piling-mat-installation of over 1km in length and 750m wide, requiring approximately 1 million tonnes of aggregate. The low-lying site is far from straightforward, with a high-water table requiring the installation of further rhynes to provide natural drainage across the site.
In line with planning approvals and the ethos behind the development, the project is successfully working within CL:AIRE and WRAP protocols thanks to the foresight of Paul Lowndes, Programme Director at Gravity and David Swann, Director at Kelston Sparkes. In a win for low carbon common sense, it was agreed that materials from existing structures and other local sites would be recycled, repurposed and re-used in the groundworks. One example of this is the crushing and stockpiling of 220,000 tonnes of recycled concrete for the platform of the gigafactory. Paul Lowndes, Programme Director at Gravity was also delighted to take materials from adjacent land to repurpose:
“Kelston Sparkes is completing the groundworks for the Hinkley Connection overhead lines project, connecting Hinkley C Power station to Avonmouth. On reinstatement it made sense that the extracted stone should be re-used on our site. David from Kelston Sparkes called me and a dialogue was started which led to us taking all recovered materials from Hinkley Point and stockpiling them ready for our project. As well as the carbon saving from extraction of raw materials, this has led to a hugely reduced transport carbon footprint. It ultimately made sense to work with the team at Kelston Sparkes to carry out the preliminary groundworks here too.”
Jefferson Weber, Head of Construction – UK Battery Facility for Agratas adds:
“The partnership with Gravity and Kelston Sparkes has worked well, so it was logical to keep the existing groundworks team on the project. They are already on the ground doing a great job and are fully abreast of the site and ground conditions. The team is also a perfect match for our local agenda brief which we agreed with the relevant authorities. A huge plus is the continued access to re-used materials from the overhead lines, which is not just a sustainable use of materials, but part of our zero to landfill aspirations and our low carbon agenda.”
David Swann, Director at Kelston Sparkes, is clearly delighted at the appointment and concurs that it is a common sense move for all parties:
“As well as access to huge quantities of materials that can be recycled and re-used, we also have contracts within local quarries for crushing and screening. This enables us to buy back material from quarries where we operate, providing an end-to-end service, ensuring quality, consistency and keeping the local economy buoyant. A large part of the contract is the demolition of existing underground structures, where we are processing all recovered concrete to useable products for reuse. In doing so we have retained the specialist skills of another local sub-contractor, JD Pope.
This is an exciting project for both Kelston Sparkes and the surrounding area and one that we are extremely proud to be involved in.”
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