The Holmfirth Town Centre Access Plan is a £10.3 million investment scheme which aims to create a more accessible town centre for businesses, residents and visitors. The scheme aims to help reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions by prioritising sustainable transport while ensuring accessibility for all and supporting the growth and development of the cultural sector. The working partnership between contractor CR Reynolds and National Pile Croppers (NPC) has enabled the demanding piling work to be completed in a timely and cost effective manner.

The Holmfirth Town Centre Action Plan is a partnership project between the council and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority which aims to meet the changing needs of the community. At the core of the scheme is improved traffic flow that aims to reduce journey times which will reduce congestion. In addition, the scheme will provide improved pedestrian safety and delivery enhanced accessibility for vulnerable users. The scheme will involve the demolition of the former market hall building and extension of the adjacent Huddersfield Road car park.

Leading contractor in the north of England

The lead contractor for the scheme is Hull headquartered company CR Reynolds. Founded by Chris Reynolds, the company chairman, it is a privately owned and run organisation that has worked in the UK Civil Engineering and Construction industry for over 40 years. Over this time, CR Reynolds has grown into a well-respected principal contractor with experience in delivering a wide range of civil engineering and building projects across the UK. CR Reynolds possesses a track record of delivering highly quality projects, and this, coupled with a drive for continual improvement, has been reflected in the many industry awards won by the company.

CR Reynolds has aimed to always work flexibly and innovatively with its clients and stakeholders, making sure  to fully understand each project’s aims and objectives, then deliver them with consistency. This approach has been a major advantage in implementing the Holmfirth Town Centre Action Plan. The company prides itself on its ability to continually meet client’s needs, maintain positive relationships, and deliver a high quality of workmanship, whilst never compromising health and safety. These simple attitudes being a key characteristic of its business ethics and are best demonstrated by a continuously high level of client satisfaction and repeat business for high profile clients and authorities.

Major piling project

Given the multifaceted nature of the Holmfirth Town Centre Action Plan, a wide variety of concrete piles were required. These were mainly 600mm and 750mm contiguous piles. “The piles are set in a contiguous wall with 10 x 40mm reinforced bars in each cage. The crop section is 1.5m, with 10/11m drilling with no refusal point so the drilling had to go deeper. Hence, and given the nature of the project, and following discussions with CR Reynolds, it was decided to use a CFA with dog-bones and cylinders removed. For flexibility, the cropper was set up to be changed around by the client as quickly and easily as possible to adapt to each pile,” explains National Pile Cropper sales director Scott Fitchett.

The NPC CFA hydraulic pile cropper is a traditional linked modular cropper which can be adjusted to suit required pile sizes. Its flexibility provided to be the ideal solution for dealing with the 600mm and 750mm contiguous piles which were used for the new café and bridge developments. The croppers were used in conjunction with the NPC provided lifting frame. This has the advantage of working with minimal restriction enabling the CFA Cropper to cut circular augured concrete piles from 300mm – 1200mm diameter. It’s modular design further allows for it to be adjusted to suit different pile sizes onsite. Adjustments of 100mm at a time can be achieved easily by adding a half link without any hydraulic interference.

Team work to the fore

The nature of the Holmfirth Town Centre Action Plan meant that flexibility of approach was key.

“CR Reynold’s attitude throughout enabled us to provide the right and most effective solution,” explains Scott. “They worked  with us to find the right solution, telling us of the configuration and then we made it happen. By doing this and by being fully onboard, we were able crop 10-15 600mm and 750mm contiguous piles each day. This doesn’t sound a great deal but due to the nature of the project and the piles, we worked with the CR Reynold’s team try out various setups to get the piles cropped in a tight space.

“The NPC team worked tirelessly with CR Reynolds to deliver different setups to achieve a solution. The piles were large, misshapen and very close to one another requiring a large cropper to fit in very tight gaps which varied from pile to pile. Two different excavators needed to be used for different sides of the river, and the cylinders needed to be moved and removed on the cropper to fit between different piles. CR Reynolds was happy to do this on site when required, drawing on the pile cropping expertise of the NPC team. We visited the site on a continual basis to check progress, monitor the cropper and try to pre-empt any possible issues,” concludes Scott Fitchett of the highly successful working relationship between CR Reynolds and National Pile Croppers.