Bradley Lane Wolverhampton Park & Ride Facility

Fitzgerald Contractors have successfully delivered a vital civil engineering scheme at Bilston, Wolverhampton, involving the construction of a park and ride facility on behalf of West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), enabling rail Metro users to benefit from a free and easily accessible parking facility.

The £1.5m contract, opened in March 2020 involved the construction of a new 196-space car park and 150m long access road, including the installation of pedestrian steps and access for all ramps from the car park to the Metro stop platforms. Works also involved the installation of drainage, ducting, formwork and reinforced concrete works for the structure.

From the outset Fitzgerald’s management team established a strong collaborative relationship with WMCA and our team quickly devised a project delivery strategy which provided WMCA with a clear understanding of all risks, cost control measures and a robust construction programme.

The inclement weather also became a significant challenge due to our works taking place during a particularly wet winter. This resulted in the ground becoming soft and not conducive to earthworks operations with the necessity to remove 6,000m3 of excavated material off site, and to ensure the safe importation of fill material for the car park foundations and surfacing.

The potential for bad weather was identified as a significant risk at preconstruction stage and when this did occur we deployed our plan to subsequently re-phase our works and as a result we successfully maintained our programme and delivered on time and to budget.

Delivered over a 23 week period the scheme forms a strategic part of WMCA’s wider plans to encourage greater use of public transport and reduce congestion and drastically reduce air pollution levels. Following the successful delivery of the Bradley Lane scheme Fitzgerald are building on the excellent relationship already established with WMCA. In early 2020 were appointed to engage in Early Contractor Involvement on a number of highways improvement schemes in Birmingham, this includes the Harborne Road, Queen Elizabeth Bus Priority and Alcester Road Improvements.