Welcome to our latest newsletter, we are pleased to see the busy start to 2024 has continued throughout the year and look forward to a busy 2025. To meet the demands of our workload we have introduced a few new staff, firstly Steve Cook to manage our document control systems supporting both our Colchester & London offices bringing over a decade of experience from a tier one contractor. We are pleased to add Steve to our professional team, and he has been busy working with our new Project Management software to ensure compliance and efficiency across the sites. Rebecca Mitchell’s recent promotion to Senior Buyer, again supporting both offices has seen the addition of an assistant to her, and we welcome Millie Rayner who has experience in purchasing and we are looking forward to supporting Millie’s career development. In terms of work experience, we were pleased to offer Miles Kearin a work placement opportunity for the past 3 months to understand and get an overview of the construction industry in more detail before making his career choices. Miles has been working on our site in Queen Street, Colchester supporting and assisting our management team.
Live projects include our 122-unit residential scheme in Wickford, RAAC works at Billericay School and a commercial development project at Queen Street in Colchester where we recently hosted a Constructing Excellence Essex site visit, welcoming professionals from across Essex. We have commenced works on site for a 62-bed care home in Hextable for Barchester Healthcare. To read about the breaking ground ceremony click here.
Over the past few months, we have achieved completion on a few projects including Corporate Identity (CI) upgrades to two Mercedes showrooms. We have also been appointed as a contractor on the Essex Construction Framework 3 (ECF3). As a main contractor with our headquarters in Essex, we are thrilled to have secured our first framework position and are eager to collaborate with Essex County Council to deliver maintenance and education projects over the course of the following four years.
We have been collaborating closely with the local community, including litter picking around Queen Street Colchester and renewing our sponsorship for the Mercury Theatre in Colchester. We have also taken on several sporting events for charity including our Quantity Surveyor Sam Griffin who has signed up for the 2025 London Marathon supporting St Helena’s Hospice. I’m sure he would greatly appreciate any donations, we also had our Summer Social paddleboarding, at Constable Park, Brantham, and our golfers have also attended two golf days in aid of St Helena Hospice and Talitha Koum.
We’ve greatly enjoyed hosting our annual Property and Construction Breakfast each October over the past few years. Unfortunately, this year our schedule was too packed to make the necessary arrangements, but we’re excited to welcome you all back in 2025!
This edition has a lot for you to discover, but if you have any questions or would like any specific information, or if Horizon Construction can help you in any way, please do get in touch with me. I hope you enjoy this update and insight into Horizon Construction.
Phil Holding
Automotive projects
COMPLETED: Mercedes Benz of Lakeside
Horizon Construction have recently handed over the showroom to the team at Mercedes Benz of Lakeside. Works involved in this project were to provide a corporate Identity upgrade for Stratstone which now brings the building in line with current company corporate requirements.
We were pleased to be working with Stratstone and SRA Architects on another construction solution in the automotive sector.
Commercial projects
LIVE: Queen Street Digital Creative Hub, Colchester
We are thrilled to share the progress we’ve made since breaking ground in January at our Queen Street project for Colchester City Council and Colchester Amphora Trading Limited in Queen Street.
Progress on the Queen Street project continues with several critical milestones achieved recently. We have completed the joist and ply decking for the first, second, and third floors. Significant progress on the roof structure and facades has been made to safeguard the project as winter approaches. Scaffolding has been raised in conjunction with the carpentry work to maintain efficient workflow.
In the upcoming period, our focus will be on the roof structure and applying the roof coverings. Additionally, the installation of the Steel Framing System (SFS) walls across all floors is scheduled to be completed. This will allow our bricklaying team to return to the site and start their portion of the work.
Education projects
LIVE: RAAC - Billericay School
Horizon Construction is pleased to announce the contract at Billericay School is nearing completion. Works involved in this project were to carry out remedial works to RAAC roof planks. Our team successfully handed over key areas to the school on time to minimise disruption.
We were delighted to be working again with the team at PCH Associates within the educational sector.
Healthcare projects
LIVE: 62-Bed care home in Hextable, Kent
Works have commenced on our site for Barchester Healthcare in Hextable, Swanley, creating a new 62-bedroom Care Home.
Groundworks including semi-basement, retaining walls, foundations and ground floor slabs are nearing completion allowing superstructure works to commence imminently, and external civil engineering works to progress. The site remains on schedule since commencement and our team are working hard with the local residents to minimise disruption and nuisance as the site is located amongst an established high-end residential area.
We are looking forward to working again with the team at Holden & Lee and Harris Irwin Architects.
Residential projects
LIVE: 122 new homes in Wickford, Essex
The construction of a 122-home scheme in Wickford, Essex, for Sanctuary.
The £18m project for Sanctuary, a leading social housing and care provider, will create a range of affordable and energy-efficient housing. The new development will contain a mixture of one and two bedroom properties across two apartment blocks for rent and shared ownership. All works are expected to be completed in 2025. (Read more >>)
The site comprises of two blocks, the first of which has the superstructure completed, scaffold on the way down and internal works progressing well allowing the imminent installation of kitchens and final finishes. The second block is near completion of the superstructure and following the timeline progress of the other block, with an overall view to have the scaffold fully dismantled on both blocks during January 2025. Following this the external works including a tiered level reinforced level car park and access ramps, as well as completion of the civil engineering and S278 works will commence.
Horizon Construction is collaborating with many leading local partners in the construction process, including Wincer Kievenaar Architects, Superstructures, JSH and Ingent.
Community & Charity Work
