Construction of a mixed-use development comprising 154 apartments within a 23-storey block, 120,000sqft of office space over eight floors and three levels of basement to accommodate 200 car parking spaces and bicycle parking. The scheme also includes cafés / restaurants located on the ground floor and roof-top, and extensive sky gardens and roof terraces, which will enhance the amenity spaces.

Clarendon Road in central Watford is being regenerated as a flagship employment area, characterised by large contemporary commercial and mixed-use buildings. Two existing office buildings are to be demolished to facilitate construction.

The proposed scheme has established a series of key design principles to ensure a high-quality design that will uplift the local environment surrounding the site and that will provide a beacon for the centre of Watford.

A multidiscipline Ridge team was appointed after the planning application had been submitted.

The Geo-Environmental investigation incorporated the construction of five deep rotary cored boreholes using wireline coring (Geobore S) and five shallow boreholes across the site at identified locations prior to demolition of the existing structures and infrastructure. The investigation was of combined geotechnical and geo-environmental nature. Construction of the boreholes was to assess the nature of the underlying soil and encountered groundwater conditions, and included specified in-situ testing, sample collection and specified installation of groundwater monitoring wells or bentonite backfill and surfacing repair.

Three of the rotary borehole locations were progressed to 31mbgl and two were progressed to 46mbgl. Borehole locations targeted the proposed development footprint and allowed design consideration for basement and pile design, by way of assessment of the nature of underlying strata, production of detailed engineers’ logs and recovery of samples to undergo chemical and geotechnical laboratory testing.