East Midlands Gateway

The East Midlands Gateway development is located on farmland between Lockington and East Midlands Airport. This prestigious project is a significant investment for the area, providing a distribution hub to link rail, road and air transport. The works were programmed over a 3-year period, of which we are halfway through. Following the demolition of the farm buildings, there was a substantial clearance of trees and hedges. Topsoil stripping commenced after this, following a sequence to reduce water run-off. Half of the earthworks filling is incorporated in a significant screening bund for the benefit of Lockington’s residents. This houses the surplus topsoil and lesser-grade subsoils.

Our engineering team established a base station to provide line and level control for our Trimble guided plant, our engineering team, as well as Winvic’s surveyors. Due to the vast size of the site, the base was connected to the internet to provide corrections through IBSS as well as radio. The cut and fill operation then commenced, in accordance with Hydrock’s specifications. All of the geotechnical testing is managed and coordinated by our engineering team. The A453 junction and access road were completed first in preparation for Winvic’s ground workers. As well as this, a substantial compound was established to serve the 3 years. After the first year, we had managed to surpass the programmed cut and fill quantity.

With the completion of the first enabling plateaus between the spine road and the airport, build contracts have also been awarded to Winvic for Plots 1,2,3 and 4. We are undertaking the earthworks and stabilisation works for these four distribution centres.