MARS REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT BV

Located in the heart of the town, the Rochdale Exchange Shopping Centre houses dozens of familiar retail brands. The customer car park is situated above the centre and attracts a high volume of users every day. Just ahead of the 40th anniversary of the centre’s original opening and following a competitive tender, project consultants JLL appointed Everlast as the main contractor to work with WestWood Liquid Technologies on the project to repair and resurface the car park.

Over time and extensive use, the existing car park surface had developed numerous failings in the asphalt surfacing, and the curbs throughout were in dire need of repair. The client also wanted to use the refurbishment project to instigate an improved traffic flow with designated pedestrian walkways for increased safety. Throughout the project, the car park had to be kept open.

A flexible phased scheme was devised to ensure 24/7 access to the adjoining multi-story car park while keeping at least half of the main parking deck available for customer use. Out of hours working was deployed as necessary and bulletins were issued to retail tenants and manager of the centre to keep them informed about weekly and daily operations.

Everlast’s specialist workforce was monitored by WestWood to ensure that the the install was carried out in line with their detailed specification. The existing car park deck had large humps of asphalt encapsulating the street lighting cables; these areas were cut out and new cabling installed and the surfacing reformed using WestWood’s Wecryl 842 mortar. The areas were then coated over and the previous humps eliminated, resolving the previous ponding water issue and achieving a better aesthetic finish. The surface finish product was formulated in a vibrant RAL green to match the shopping centre’s own colour scheme; it was used to designate the pedestrian walkways and create a visual connection between the car park and retail space.

Wet weather during the course of the works affected the schedule, but the impact was mitigated by the fast-curing properties of the PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) products, which ensured the retail units below the car park were kept watertight at all times.  

The re-designed layout has improved vehicle flow around the main deck area and the brightly coloured walkways have made the car park safer for pedestrians. WestWood provided a robust single point 10-year guarantee covering both products and workmanship. 

Everlast Group has worked on a variety of refurbishment and new build across all sectors