© Brighton i360 Limited 2014

Brighton i360Newsletter - Issue 2 - August 2nd 2014

Welcome to the second edition of the Brighton i360 construction newsletter. It’s been a busy month with the beach access road construction and the first spade in the ground event.

First Spade in the Ground

It was wonderful to see so many of our neighbours and members of the community join us on Brighton Beach for our ‘first spade in the ground event’. The sun shone and there was a real carnival atmosphere with a band playing and corks popping.

Brighton & Hove Mayor, Cllr Brian Fitch, cut the ribbon to officially open the arches. Eight new creative retail businesses have opened next to our site. We wish them every success. The £5m arches restoration looks fantastic.

The event marked the next phase of regeneration for Brighton’s western seafront with Brighton & Hove Council leader, Councilor Jason Kitcat leading a group putting the first ceremonial spade in the ground to formally start building works for the Brighton i360.

Thank you to all those who attended the groundbreaking event, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. For those of you who couldn’t make it you can read more about the event on our blog. There has

also been lots of media coverage in the Guardian, Daily Mail, ITV, BBC, Telegraph, as well as Argus, Brighton & Hove Independent and Latest TV.https://brightoni360.wordpress.com/

Beach Access Road

The beach access road is now complete and will come into commission on Monday 4th August. The feedback we’ve had so far is that people are pleasantly surprised at the look of the road. We have worked hard to choose materials for the road which will blend in to the surroundings as much as possible. The ‘road’ itself is made of wood, like a boardwalk. We are required to have safety barriers up but chosen low knee high barrier in a white colour in order that they will blend in as much as possible.

Deliveries to businesses will still be between 6am and 11am and delivery vehicles will be able to use the contractor’s access road to exit the promenade from the eastern end of the site through to the Peace Statue at the western end. Deliveries to businesses on the west of the site will continue to use the existing road.

Image credit - The Argus

There are two pedestrian walkways across the Access Road adjacent to Al Fresco on both the East and West sides, which means you will still have access to the south side of the beach to take photos.

Hoardings

In order to secure the site whilst the construction of the i360 takes place the site will be enclosed by hoardings. The 2.4m high hoardings keep the public safe and also act to reduce noise and dust escaping from the site.

You will start to see the hoardings being erected over the next few

weeks (starting with Kings Road upper promenade and then moving to the beach level) and these will be completed once the sewer diversion is complete towards the end of October. In the meantime some areas on the beach level will continue to have Heras fencing.We have been working with a local Brighton design agency to design

The contractors, J T Mackley, are aware of all wedding dates and are working closely with Al Fresco and the Bandstand to minimise any possible disruption as much as possible.

Twitter: @thebrightoni360Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Brighton-i360Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/Brightoni360Blog: http://brightoni360.wordpress.comWebsite: www.brightoni360.co.uk

Example of Hoarding Graphics

the graphics for our hoardings. They will have images showing what the i360 will look like, information about the project and the usual health and safety messages.

The most exciting portion of the design will take shape at the end of August in phase one and then be completed in the autumn. We’ve

set aside the full 90 metres of the beach side site to triumph Brighton’s creativity. A group of leading street artists will be taking charge of the space to design and paint a unique piece of art directly onto the hoardings. We encourage anyone with a sense of curiosity to come witness this live art event. Details coming soon!

Our planning application for our graphics goes in soon (this is required for any building sites if there is artwork or graphics applied to the hoarding).

Sewer Diversion

Now that the access road is complete work starts on diverting the sewer that runs under the site of the tower. To do this a new sewer will be built inside the works area and towards the end of October this new sewer will be connected to the old one.

This takes about 4 months and if you’re passing the site you will see trenches being dug and new pipes being laid. We don’t expect the sewer diversion to be any more noisy or dusty than any other construction site. You may hear us taking out some of the old concrete seawall but the site team are closely monitoring noise and vibration.

As a reminder, we are planning on working weekdays only with the exception of one weekend next spring when our concrete foundations are poured.

West Pier

The works have now been completed to remove the root end of the West Pier including the cast iron columns from the beach.

We have retained all of the columns that are in good condition for the landscaping scheme at the i360 and for the i360 visitor centre; and these are safely stored until we need them. When the i360 opens, we will be bringing back the original Eugenius Birch 1866 toll booths as our ticket booths. The West Pier Trust also plan to restore the 1866 octagonal kiosk as a West Pier heritage centre. There are some larger pieces of the pier that we are unable to use in the new building or landscaping scheme that are currently in the process of being sold off by the Dorton Group, the salvage company that dismantled the West Pier.

95% of materials that Dorton demolishes is recycled. Even the wood from the root deck of the West Pier will be salvaged and taken to the reclamation yard. Anything that can’t be resold is recycled.

So, if you are interested in owning a piece of Brighton’s history then visit Dorton’s architectural salvage yard in Burgess Hill. www.dortonreclaim.com

© Brighton i360 Limited 2014

Viewing construction progress

We’re eager for Brighton & Hove’s residents and visitors to feel involved in the construction process. So these hoardings don’t become a barrier we will install spy holes in the boards – on the upper promenade which offers the best views - so you can see all the work going on. One porthole will be placed at child’s

height, one at wheelchair height and one at adult height, so that no one misses out.

In a couple of weeks’ time, a web cam has been installed on the roof of the Hilton Metropole, which will go live soon so you can follow progress from the comfort of your own home.

We have already started taking time lapse photography from the top of the roof at Sussex Heights. Thank you very much to Sussex Heights and the Metropole for their support.