The city of Newcastle, England, is welcoming a 344,500 square-foot urban regeneration development, dubbed Giants on the Quayside, adjacent to its eponymous River Tyne. Scheduled to open in 2020, this £100M (approximately USD $127M) project will create over 550 sustainable jobs—and generate hundreds of millions of pounds in income over the next 20 years.
Giants on the Quayside will be the site of several sporting developments such as a virtual golf club, a climbing wall, a trampoline park, a toddler adventure area and affordable spaces to rent for cycling, five-a-side and tennis. Attractions will include a 39-foot tall statue nicknamed the Geordie Giant as well as a sprawling food and beverage area called the Giant’s Quay.
For all that, the most eye-catching figure of the development will surely be the 460-foot Whey Aye. It is taller than the London Eye by 16 feet, making it Europe’s tallest observation wheel. Golder UK is one of a team of nine picked by the World Wheel Company to deliver this prestigious development.
Along with planning partner Lichfields and other subcontractors, Golder is carrying out the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the development’s effects on air quality, noise, ecology, landscape, archaeology and land condition. Work to be undertaken includes geo-environmental drilling and sampling, archaeological trial pitting, ecology surveys and air quality, noise and landscape assessments.
The project team spans four offices and is working within an incredibly tight planning deadline; the entire project must be delivered in only a few short months. This is a major UK development project and a high-profile win for Golder UK.
After completing an initial small-scale Phase 1 geo-environmental assessment over the summer, Golder received the go-ahead to begin work on the full EIA project at a meeting in late September. We are now working closely with the wider project team and World Wheel Company, our client and a company known globally for building giant observation wheels and entertainment centers.
Details of the Giants on the Quayside project can be found here.
