Broad Street, Cardiff

The demolition and development of new build dwellings on the Former Sacred Heart Church site, Broad Street, Cardiff. The works comprised of 16 apartments in two three storey blocks and four houses using traditional construction methods on a very tight and restricted site, surrounded by existing residential properties on the very busy Broad Street. The existing buildings on site were a former Catholic church and presbytery and had to be demolished as part of the contract.

​The early stages of the contract required gas monitoring, ground remediation and a bat survey, which did identify that bats were present. This required the appointment of an ecologist and obtaining a bat licence from NRW to relocate any bats found to a nearby bat habitat. Prior to the demolition of the buildings we liaised closely with the nearby residents who had connections with the church. As a result of this communication exercise we were able to carefully remove a statue from the front gable of the church and deliver it, intact, to a local resident who was delighted.

The construction consisted of trench fill foundations, precast block and beam oversite and face brick and block cavity wall construction with a mixture of face brick and render to the external elevations. The first and second floors were pre-stressed concrete beams and the roof was made up of pre-fabricated trussed rafters.

The project had a contract period of 52 weeks and was delivered on time with no issues at practical completion.