O’Brien Infrastructure Works Progress at Old Rover Site, Longbridge

O’Brien Contractors are delighted to be working with St Modwen, Wakemans, and Rodgers Leask on one of the largest regeneration schemes in the UK, at their exciting West Longbridge mixed use development site, next to the River Rea. Longbridge is a long-term £1 billion initiative to breathe new life into one of Britain’s most famous industrial areas. As home to ‘The Austin’, Longbridge was once Europe’s largest car factory and gave birth to visionary automobiles including the iconic Mini. Today, a new identity is being forged for an thriving mixed-use hub of workplaces, homes, shops, cafes, event spaces and parkland, where residents, businesses, students and visitors can live, work, study and play.

Our works include S38, S104 which consist of earthworks, full carriage/cycleway, utility services, storm/foul water drainage, and landscaping works to form green areas for public use. These works unlock building plots to allow future development to commence which will bring additional employment to the local area.

For more information on the development at Longbridge

https://longbridgebirmingham.co.uk/work/work-space/

Using the latest machine technology on site.

https://obriencontractors.co.uk/the-latest-technology-on-board-our-two-brand-new-ec220-volvos-in-action-in-the-midlands-this-week/

 

New CAT D6T takes the highway to St. Modwen’s Longbridge scheme

Civil engineering and groundworks company provides earthworks, groundworks and infrastructure services at Morgan Sindall’s regeneration of Longbridge town centre in Birmingham, West Midlands

We’ve recently strengthened our earthworks service and plant hire division with the acquisition of a new GPS controlled CAT D6T dozer.

The new D6T will be put to the test at St. Modwen’s £100 million town centre masterplan at the former MG Rover site. This development will feature the Midlands’ largest Marks & Spencer store comprising 150,000 sq ft, a six floor multi storey, 500 space car park and an additional 45,000sq ft of retail, restaurant and café space.

We have been appointed by principal contractor, Morgan Sindall, to deliver a highways package – including earthworks, 1606m of drainage up to 6m deep and 4500m of kerbs and edgings.

The new CAT D6T takes our investment in state-of-the-art equipment and machinery up to an impressive £2.2m during the last 12 months, including: two new Volvo A25G articulated haulers, three Volvo EC140DL excavators and a CAT D6N GPS controlled dozer.

Mick O’Brien our Director, said: “Throughout the years, our expertise has grown but our aims remain much the same – to work with our clients as an expert partner and provide industry-leading staff, technology and skills to deliver end results that exceed expectations.”

“To achieve our goals, we believe we must continue to invest in our people, software and machinery to ensure we continually improve the quality of our work and the speed of installation, saving our clients both time and money.”

This latest investment is part of an ongoing diversification strategy that is transforming our business and seen us win countless awards in recognition of our innovation, including ‘Tomorrow’s Company’ and ‘Specialist Contractor of the Year’ by Construction News and ‘Contractor of the Year up to £300 million by Building Magazine.

As the industry prepares for its annual celebration at the Construction News Awards on 30 June 2015, the recognition we’ve received at previous awards has prompted us to proudly sponsor this year’s event.

O’Brien Contractors appointed to St. Modwen’s Longbridge scheme

Civil engineering and groundworks company provides earthworks, groundworks and infrastructure services at Morgan Sindall’s regeneration of Longbridge town centre in Birmingham, West Midlands

Leading groundworks and civil engineering contractor, O’Brien, has been appointed to work on the second phase of St. Modwen’s regeneration of Longbridge.

In the second phase of the masterplan for the delivery of a £100 million town centre at the former MG Rover site, the development will feature the Midlands’ largest Marks & Spencer store comprising 150,000 sq ft, a six floor multi storey and 500 space car park and an additional 45,000sq ft of retail, restaurant and café space.

Appointed by principal contractor, Morgan Sindall, O’Brien will deliver a host of ground works – including construction of access roads, in situ concrete retaining walls, gabion walls and public realm works.
Phil Griffiths, Director, O’Brien, said: “The Longbridge redevelopment is one of the most high profile schemes currently taking place in the region and we are naturally very pleased to be chosen to deliver enabling and ground works to St. Modwen on this project.

Click below to watch our progress footage

“We are working to a really tight delivery programme to ensure that the Marks & Spencer store opens on time and it is paramount to the success of the scheme that our tasks are completed on programme.”

Mark Batchelor, St. Modwen construction manager, said: “Construction on phase two of Longbridge Town Centre is in full swing with 3,745 tonnes of steelwork going up for the new M&S store which is on track to open in time for Christmas 2015.

“More than 500 jobs will be created with the construction and opening of this second phase, adding to the 3,500 jobs that have already been created since we began regenerating Longbridge in 2003.”

Established in 1958, O’Brien Contractors is a second generation, family-run business that has gone from strength to strength and expanded into a range of new sectors.

From commercial units and Olympic-standard sports facilities, to railway stations, hospitals, universities, highways and commercial housing developments, O’Brien’s extensive experience consistently leads to the delivery of class-leading solutions.

Phil Griffiths added: “Some 85% of our work is repeat business and many of our new contracts come about because of referrals so it’s vital that we deliver the very best solutions at all times, either as principal or sub-contractor.”
To date, O’Brien has delivered projects for a range of top quality clients, including Jaguar Land Rover, Nestle, the National Trust, Morrisons, Aston University, Kier Construction, Wates and John Sisk.

St. Modwen, the UK’s leading regeneration specialist, aspires to create 10,000 jobs through the £1 billion Longbridge project which covers 468 acres.