Following a £4 million investment by the South West Regional Development Agency (SWERDA) and the Objective One European funding programme, the most environmentally advanced business park in Cornwall was built in Tolvaddon, a village just of the A30 at Camborne. The brief was to transform 1.3 hectares of brownfield site into a 19 unit (2890 square metre) business park for small businesses producing and developing environmentally sustainable products and technologies. The main contractor for the project was Midas Construction Ltd from St Austell and 95% of the sub-contractors they used were local – including J W Lewis & Sons Ltd.
Prior to being informed that our Bodmin PFI hospital tender was to be successful, we secured the sub-contract works at Tolvaddon Energy Park. The roof area was a considerable 4612 square metres using natural imported slate. With our contract including counterbattening into a tactray system and to install all Rockwall insulation as well as the slating and leadwork, our permitted time scale of 16 weeks was challenging. With the Bodmin hospital contract also secured and set to coincide with the Tolvaddon programme, the challenge was even more demanding. But as with Bodmin, Tolvaddon’s contract went like a dream.
Starting as a Cupa R12 Spanish slate specification, this was soon changed to Camborne Brazilian slate. This upset the apple cart in certain quarters, but in order to be competitive this was the only way that we could possibly contend for the contract. With Dr Chandra Durve (Camborne Slate Company) on board with Cembrit Blunn, Midas Construction soon realised the potential of using this Brazilian slate and convinced the planners and Architects the same. For some it was just the name that they favoured; the popular and coveted Camborne slate being used on a development in Camborne. Makes perfect sense!
The pre-contract meeting took place on the 15th February 2001 with both Tony Lewis and Graham Barker in attendance. With the development in 5 blocks it was essential that there was more than one site leader, so Tony Lewis took charge of all the counterbattening and insulation. Andrew Bragg, Sean Sullivan, Daniel Ralph and Stuart Clarke then looked after all the slating works between them. All works were completed on schedule with high praise being received from Steve Luck and Ian Tresidder (of Midas Construction). As with Bodmin PFI hospital, this contract gives further proof of this Company’s ability to fulfill hard and demanding schedules to the highest standard of workmanship.
This turned out to be the start of a series of contracts that we carried out for Midas Construction Ltd. The detailed list of all the other contracts are shown separately.
The total contract value for this project finished at £15 under £200K (exc VAT).