Mayor Rotheram joined Torus and Eric Wright Construction at the £51 million Lightbody Street project – Hartley Locks – in Liverpool for a topping out ceremony to mark the completion of the reinforced concrete frame.
Eric Wright Construction is designing and constructing 185 apartments and 10 townhouses, including car parking, landscaping and the conversion of nearby railway arches for commercial use.
Located next to Liverpool’s historic Stanley Dock, the development comprises a mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments. Work commenced in March 2022 and is on schedule to be completed by Spring 2025.
The ground works, drainage and the reinforced concrete frame have all completed marking this momentous ‘topping out’ milestone for the project which will hopefully trigger future investment in the local area. The façade works including scaffolding, windows and masonry are now well underway whilst internally, mechanical and electrical works have commenced allowing the following first fix partitioning to progress at pace.
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “I have always been bold in my ambition to make our area a leader in the Green Industrial Revolution, having set a target to be net zero by 2040 at the latest – a full decade ahead of national government.
“To help us achieve that goal, we have invested more than £105 million to retrofit 10,000 homes across our area, which is helping thousands of our most vulnerable households to save hundreds of pounds on their energy bills. We are working around the clock to deliver on our goals with the limited funding we have been able to wrestle from government, but I know that we simply cannot achieve our targets on our own. Collaboration between public and private sector is helping us to go further and faster than ever before – and helping more people in our area to get a foot on the property ladder in secure, energy efficient home of their own.”
Torus Chief Executive, Steve Coffey, said: “To be able to celebrate such great progress on one of Torus’ landmark schemes is fantastic. Hartley Locks signifies the upscaling of Torus’ long-term investment in North Liverpool which will see us build even more affordable homes in the city region and help regenerate areas that, for a long time, have been overlooked. To be able to work with a number of key partners across the Liverpool City Region to unlock sites such as this is something I am incredibly proud of and to be part of the team that is leading the development of the first affordable housing scheme in the area is simply brilliant.”
Speaking about the development, James Eager, Construction Director at Eric Wright Construction, commented: “Our organisation has an enviable record of delivering high quality affordable homes across the North West and we are delighted to be supporting our valued client, Torus, and support the ongoing development of the Liverpool City Region. This is the latest in a number of successful medium rise residential projects we have successfully delivered, including The Dispensary in Ancoats and Greenhaus, a nine-storey Passivhaus certified scheme in Salford.”
