Connell Brothers were contracted by The Home Office to carry out the asbestos removal, demolition & enabling works at Bedford, in preparation for the construction of a new Immigration Detention Centre.

The 25 acre demolition site was located within the 164 acre operational Ministry of Defence DERA site in Bedford. Throughout the project, all personnel had to comply with MOD security arrangements and access had to be maintained for all other site users.

Once the services had been successfully disconnected, and prior to the commencement of demolition, the works area was fenced off by installing 2000 metres of 2.4M high chain-link fence with welded mesh panels to BS 1722 pt 10. This also included for the supply and installation of 2 electronic, card controlled turnstiles to control access, and CCTV to monitor access positions – these being operated by a security control point 600 metres away from the gates which necessitated the installation of ducting and cabling.

Further fencing had to be erected to areas containing 90 trees which were subject to Tree Preservation Orders and required protecting throughout the works.

Trained operatives carried out the removal of asbestos materials from the structures, with monitoring being carried out by The Home Office appointed Independent Analyst. The majority of the buildings were constructed in 1950’s and contained cement bonded asbestos sheeting. A planned sequence of work was established to enable teams working off access platforms to de-clad several buildings at a time, to allow demolition to proceed.

In total, the demolition required 20 no. buildings to be demolished with their slabs and foundations removed. All slabs and foundations were further processed on site through the crushing plant and all voids backfilled with the remainder being stockpiled on site for use by the construction contractors.

During the course of the work, a second stage archaeological survey was carried out by the Home Office appointed archaeologist.

Once the demolition was completed and underground structures removed, Connell Brothers proceeded to remove all roadways within the 25 acre sit in preparation for development.

During the course of the works, a full drain survey of the site and surrounding area was carried out. Due to the location of some drains, off-road vehicles had to be employed. In total, 5,800 linear metres of drainage was traced and plotted with the relevant information being issued to the Home Office.

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