St. Stephen’s development, Hull

Retail scheme, St Stephen's Development in Hull

Facts and figures

  • Value is £160 million
  • 40-acre city centre brownfield site, one of the most significant regeneration projects in Europe
  • Covers more than 52,000m²
  • The supermarket slabs represent one of fastest and most cost effective solutions Interserve has designed to date

The St. Stephen’s development in Hull, a vast £160-million mixed use retail scheme, has used Interserve’s Airodek and Alshor Plus equipment to create a 52,000 sq m city centre shopping complex.

The 40-acre inner city brownfield site is one of the most significant regeneration projects in Europe, and has transformed the retail and leisure provision for both the local community and the region. The project opened in autumn 2007.

The St. Stephen's site is the largest in the UK to date to use a combination of Interserve's Alshor Plus aluminium shoring system and Airodek soffit formwork. Split into two distinct sections, a single-story supermarket and a three-storey retail development, the efficient construction of the various sections of the build required different formwork and falsework solutions.

By using Alshor Plus throughout the site, the formwork and falsework sub-contractor was able to increase the utilisation of kit, making the available stock work harder onsite. With training, health and safety, site and stock management crucial to the overall performance of the development, Interserve also assigned a dedicated customer service engineer to the project.

Commenting on the overall success of the project, site manager for John Doyle, Mick Keebles said: "As a specialist formwork and falsework contractor, our reputation relies on the completion of work on time and to the very highest of standards. Having worked with Interserve equipment in the past I was interested to see what difference their new Alshor Plus product could make to our overall programme management and performance.

"From a health and safety point of view, because the system is lightweight we did not have to worry about lifting and manhandling and as Alshor Plus is designed to integrate with access ladders and platforms and Interserve's Ultraguard safety protection, working at height issues were also eliminated. But from my perspective using one main product on site cut out a lot of organisation and cost, particularly as we were able to work with Bob to manage training, equipment flows and site storage."