News
Hotel and retail project will rejuvenate Chelmsford town centre
Steelwork erection has begun on a mixed-use development in Chelmsford which includes an 81-bed Travelodge hotel, 12 residential apartments and approximately 2,400m2 of retail and restaurant space.
The project, on the site of the former Army & Navy pub, features a steel frame with a maximum
four-storey height and a range of architectural finishes to the building’s facade, including curtain walling, polished metal cladding and brickwork.
Working on behalf of main contractor ISG Jackson, DGT Steel and Cladding is supplying and erecting approximately 320t of structural steelwork.
Mark Bird, DGT Technical Manager, said the project posed a number of challenging aspects including the main retail area’s curved glass facade and the diagonally sloping roof. “As the roof slopes diagonally from corner to corner, not front to back, the purlins are running at approximately 45 degrees to the cell-beam rafters. This means every purlin to rafter connection is bespoke.
“The perimeter elevations of the hotel include galvanised feature channels which will be tied into the brickwork, and required an adjustment detail, utilising interlocking serrated plates, to ensure alignment with the brick coursing,” he added.
The project is scheduled for completion by early 2009.
