Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd

Old Market Square, Nottingham

Nottingham Old Market Square is seen as the strategic heart of the city taking the form of a major pedestrian thoroughfare linking city centre attractions and destinations. The square is a key focal point of the city, being a historic meeting place for the people of Nottingham through local events, civic protests and royal visits.

The square, one of the largest public spaces not only in Britain but Europe was subject to an international design competition with a shortlist of six designs teams. The chosen design can be seen to reflect the themes of light, water and texture.

The works comprised the demolition of existing hard landscape and street furniture and the construction of a new multi-level water feature.

The old underground toilets have been converted into a water tank the size of a small swimming pool holding 60,000 gallons of water and a state of the art control room to house the water filtration systems and the technology behind the squares electricity and water supplies. Further works included the reprofiling of all square levels and repaving with high specification landscaping products on new concrete foundations. A new feature lighting scheme and a market and events power network have also been installed.

Materials

The materials used for Old Market Square have been designed and selected to be sympathetic to their context whilst imparting a sense of unique character. The central square is composed of a large light coloured surface of slip resistant granite that compliments surrounding buildings.

Seating and water terraces are fashioned in white, beige and black granite. The 1000 square metre four tiered water feature is constructed from 1200 tonnes of reinforced concrete and granite and has been engineered to sit on steel cased concrete piles, 13 metres long, carrying the structure over the existing deep sewer. Several lines of trees have been planted across the square.

Liaison

The Balfour Beatty site team maintained a close relationship with Nottingham City Council and other Stakeholders, including neighbouring retail businesses to ensure the works programme could be successfully completed with minimal disruption.

Extensive liaison took place with Nottingham Express Transit, a tram service with a central station based at Old Market Square. A strong relationship with this third party ensured minimal disruption was caused to its services.

Environment

Due to the city centre location, dust and noise suppression methods were implemented. A 'Clear Zone' policy was adopted ensuring deliveries could only be received outside the hours of 10.30am - 4.30pm avoiding busy shopping periods.

Two weeks of planned events have taken place to mark the opening of the square, culminating in an official opening by Princess Anne.

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