BSP Consulting

BSP Consulting undertook the design work for the post planning to construction phase of the Abbey Meadows Housing Leicester scheme, which has been built on a 4.8-acre site at Abbey Meadows.

Leicester-based developer GS Developments has partnered with Lovell Partnerships and Nottingham Community Housing Association (NCHA) in a joint venture.

Lovell Partnerships built 47 affordable homes to be managed by NCHA. A further 35 build-to-rent properties will be constructed by Lovell, which will be retained and managed by GS Residential.

The 4.8 acre Abbey Meadows Road site is 200 yards from the National Space Centre and the city’s Abbey Park.

The Abbey Meadows Housing Leicester development includes two, three and four-bedroom homes, the first of which were  completed in winter 2021.

The transformation of the Waterside area – a huge swathe of previously derelict industrial land, stretching along the River Soar and Grand Union Canal down the full western side of the city – has taken decades to start and now includes hundreds of new houses and student flats, two new hotels, Grade A offices, leisure complexes and workspaces.

The Leicester scheme took the title of Residential Regeneration Project of the Year at the East Midlands Property Dinner Awards 2022.

Key challenges and engineering solutions

The surface water drainage strategy was approached with the incorporation of SuDS features including:

• An adoptable dry swale to serve the adoptable road serving as the site access.
• The use of permeable parking and private driveways to attenuate and treat surface water runoff.
• Design of external civils and drainage works to comply with the approved flood risk assessment.
• Design of an adoptable precast headwall and agreement with the Environment Agency to allow the discharge of
surface water into the River Soar to the west of the site.
• Design of a SW drainage network incorporating adoptable attenuation comprising oversized pipes and an
adoptable flow control chamber.

There was a former factory on this site, some slabs and foundations have been left in place (buried).

Areas of deep made ground were found, we suspect to former fuel tanks or perhaps basements being removed.

The foundation solution has been constantly adapted as works have progressed on site.

This has included switching to piles in areas of deep made ground, mass filling voids with concrete and also utilising beam and pad solutions to span over obstructions.

Further information about the development can be found here:
https://www.business-live.co.uk/regional-development/lovell-starts-10m-leicester-waterside-18952107

Take a look at a another housing development project BSP have been involved in:
Bowling Green Road Gainsborough