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Environmental and economic considerations led to the specification of EasiPoint specialist mortars for a prestigious £1.95 million hard landscaping scheme in the Lakeland town of Windermere.

The high profile Windermere Enhancement Scheme has provided a new look for Crescent Road, the main shopping street that make up part of the town's one-way system.

High quality materials were specified for the upgrade, which has involved widening and reconstruction the pavements, removing street clutter and the provision of street furniture and materials to follow a site specific urban design.

Designed for Cumbria Country Council Client Services by Capita Symonds' Carlisle office, the scheme involves some 0.28 hectares of high quality paving featuring sandstone from York, Italian Porphyry stone and imported granite from China.

The natural paving materials were selected for their richly contracting colours, strength, longevity and to satisfy highway design standards.

EasiPoint mortars were selected by main contractor Carillion PLC's Warrington office for all aspects of the bedding, bonding and jointing of the paved areas.

EasiPoint Fine Bedding Concrete (FBC) was made available "on tap" from a silo based in the site compound located in a nearby garden centre car park and able to provide some 30 tonnes of mixed material from each delivery. Approximately 320 tonnes of EasiPoint FBC was used over the course of the contract, along with some 300 bags of rapid setting EasiPoint RS Bedding mortar, which was used for areas requiring a quick return to service.

To provide a bond of adequate strength, EasiPoint BondPlus slurry was applied to the elements prior to bedding. Final jointing was carried out using Easipoint Standard gun injected mortar in Natural for the paving slabs, while slurry-applied SettPoint Natural high strength jointing mortar was used for the wider gaps between setts which are used to provide demarcation between the smoothly paved areas and the kerb edges at junctions.

Comments a member of Carillion's management team: "The silo was a big advantage because it meant there was virtually no wasted material. It met the client's requirement for material supplies to be sourced locally where possible, in order to reduce transport costs and carbon emissions.

"It also helped to provide better working conditions and limited the dust and stored material in an area heavily populated by shops and people."

The scheme has been funded by Cumbria County Council, the Northwest Development Agency and the European Union.

A major £4 million hard landscaping programme designed to link elements of a city’s cultural quarter by a unique new streetscape is benefiting from the use of specialist mortars from EasiPoint.

The year-long Lincoln Cultural Quarter Streetscape programme uses hard landscaping as the common thread linking various historic, cultural and commercial areas of the city centre.

High quality hard landscaping materials including natural stone paving and setts have been specified throughout the scheme, which incorporates a museum, theatre and an art and design college.

Yorkstone Scoutmoor sawn slabs and sawn setts, Yorkstone riven slabs and tumbled setts are being laid to meet heritage requirements. Overall, the project features more than 9,000 m² of paving and setts, along with areas of conservation-type slabs and asphalt.

In order to provide the quality of finish and strength to accommodate loading and commercial vehicles, which still have access to the area, consultants at Jacobs Engineering UK Ltd Newcastle-upon-Tyne office recommended two EasiPoint specialist mortars for use during the scheme.

EasiPoint Fine Bedding Concrete, conveniently stored in two silos, is mixed as required and on demand by main contractor Ringway Infrastructure Services and is being used for bedding throughout the project, while EasiPoint standard mortar is being used as a high-strength slurry for jointing the majority of paved areas where uniformity of the joints is a key issue.

A member of Jacobs' project team explained: "The use of silos offered the consistency of mix we required, removed the need to dispose of waste packaging and is providing safer working for the operatives as well as the general public by reduced exposure to dry, dusty materials and noisy mixing equipment.

"The use of silos also reduced the storage space we need to allocate in a busy city centre."

The scheme has been designed in accordance with a design guidance document – the Cultural Quarter Design Handbook – produced by the architects for the project LDA Design.

Funding has been provided principally by the City of Lincoln Council and Lincolnshire County Council supplemented by a variety of sources including Liveable City, Lincolnshire Enterprise, East Midlands Development Agency, the European Regional development Fund and the Townscape Heritage Initiative.

The project is on schedule for completion by summer 2008.

The town square in the picturesque market town of Wetherby, West Yorkshire, has undergone a major transformation following a £500,000 hard landscaping project.

Contractors DCT Civil Engineering Limited, of Oldham, Greater Manchester, needed large quantities of bedding mortar “on tap” for the scheme and opted for silo delivery of EasiPoint Fine Bedding Concrete (FBC).

By using EasiPoint FBC, the contractor, working on behalf of Leeds City Council, ensured a ready supply of bedding mortar, which could be mixed consistently and delivered to the point of use by just one operative.

DCT ‘s Jim Potts explained: “We are always looking for product innovations which help us to minimise risk and ensure consistently high quality on our projects.

“Silos deliver a measured mixture of material to the correct specification and consistency in optimum manageable batches. They also reduce waste on site when compared with bagged material, remove the need for manual handling of bags and virtually eliminate dust, protecting both the workforce and members of the public.”

Use of the system, which delivers ready-to use mortar compliant with BS7533, also helped to keep the major six-month project on track.

In all, some 700 m_ of natural Yorkstone paving was laid, along with approximately 90 m_ of traditional stone setts, recreating the traditional appeal of the pedestrianised town square, with its Yorkstone Town Hall, which dates from 1845, as the central feature.

DCT also used two Easipoint low modulus mortars in a Yorkstone colour for jointing. Gun-injected Easipoint LM was used to create strong, neat joints for the paved areas, while pourable Settpoint LM was used for the 10 mm wide joints between the stone setts.

TITANIC BUILDINGS RISE UP

A courtyard of Grade II listed buildings once owned by Britain’s most powerful 19th Century shipping magnate, have been restored to their original splendour with the help of specialist restoration mortars from EasiPoint.

The buildings formerly housed the coach house and servants’ quarters for a seafront mansion owned by J. Bruce Ismay, who as Chairman and Managing Director of the White Star Line, who originally conceived the idea for the Titanic and was a survivor of the disaster when the famous passenger liner sunk on its maiden voyage.

Just 100 yards from the Mersey seafront at Waterloo near Liverpool, the complex, now named Titanic Buildings, had fallen into disrepair and its façade of clay brick with soft red sandstone detailing was ravaged by wind-driven rain, sand and salt spray.

Developers StonesWood Construction Limited, of Stalybridge, Cheshire, acquired the buildings and commenced an 18-month programme to restore the exterior to original and create new homes.

In order to retain as much of the original structure as possible, extensive repairs were required to the external envelope and StonesWood consulted Easipoint about the most suitable repointing mortar and stone repair materials for the project.

To replicate the original lime mortar, the accessible areas of pointing were raked out and repointed using EasiPoint Restoration Mortar, which was gun applied to create fully-filled, neat joints.

For repairs to the original red sandstone detailing and blue-black brick string courses, Easipoint Reproface specialist repair mortar was used, with the contractors forming special colour blends to complement new stonework which replaced eroded mullions and header units that were beyond repair.

Around 1,000 bricks were also repaired or replaced during the restoration work.

Comments Gary Bergin, of Stoneswood: “To be able to put the repaired stone and the new so close together and for them match almost perfectly is a real achievement and it helped us in our aim to restore as much of the original as possible.

“The pointing mortar also met the need for something that was entirely in keeping with the age of the building, yet was much quicker to apply.”

EASIPOINT LIME MORTAR FILLS GAPS IN ANCIENT WALLS

THE use of a pumpable natural hydraulic lime mortar from EasiPoint provided the authentic finish required for the restoration of walls surrounding one of the UK’s most prominent Norman castles.

Around one tonne of EasiPoint Restoration Mortar was used during remedial works to the walls at Clitheroe Castle, which overlooks the market town situated in Lancashire’s Ribble Valley.

Working on behalf of Ribble Valley Borough Council, specialist contractors G. Reed and Sons Ltd, of Preston, renewed the joints in approximately 100 square metres of sandstone walling using EasiPoint restoration Mortar incorporating Trent pea grit.

The mortar met the need for a traditional lime-based material and offered the advantage of gun-injection, which enabled the contractors to fill substantial voids in the stonework and joints up to 25 mm wide.

The walls, believed to date back to the 15th Century, had become overgrown with ivy, which was removed to reveal significant deterioration of the existing mortar.

Explains Trevor Eidsforth, of G. Reed and Sons: “Weather penetration and the vegetation meant the joints were in a poor state, leaving large voids. Using the gun-injection system allowed us to fill the voids in areas we could never accessed using a trowel.”

Ribble Valley Council specified EasiPoint following a consultant’s report and advice from English Heritage, with the work funded by the council, the Northwest Development Agency and the local Rotary club.

Comments a council spokesman: “We are very pleased with the final appearance, which has created cleaner looking lines and allowed us to use a material in keeping with the age of the structure.”

Clitheroe Castle’s Norman keep dates back to 1168 when it was built for local land owner Robert De Lacy. It was ransacked by Parliamentary forces and deliberately damaged during the Civil War, but was repaired in 1848.

A major public space refurbishment project in central Luton is benefiting from economies in time and labour saving by specifying a new silo-based bedding mortar from EasiPoint.

The £2.1 million scheme to transform St George’s Square at the heart of the town centre is one of the first in the UK to use EasiPoint Fine Bedding Concrete delivered by silo.

With a requirement of up to ten tonnes of bedding mortar each day, Fitzpatrick Contractors Ltd, of Hoddesdon, selected EasiPoint FBC for its ability to meet the specification and to compete on cost.

The material is being used for the bedding of imported granite setts, slabs, kerbs and other detailing over an area totalling 6,000 square metres. In addition, EasiPoint Granatech slurry-applied jointing mortar is also being applied over most of the site to provide effective, weatherproof jointing between the various types of high quality paving.

Following bedding of the various elements, Granatech is applied by squeegee followed by a mechanical cleaner to remove any residue.

Explains Fitzpatrick’s site agent Alex Bedford: “The silo arrangement means we can mix mortar on demand whenever we want, making it very convenient. Using conventional mixing for a project this big would have taken a lot of people and a lot of time. It is also economical, cuts down on storage space, which is always at a premium and removes the need to protect stockpiled material.”

“By using Granatech for the jointing, it provides us with a single source of supply for the whole contract.”