Ex-council offices cleared to make way for new Tesco
The six-month clearance scheme will see the Centenary Way flyover removed and Norfolk House, the Civic Centre and the old Central Library all being demolished.
This comes after Rotherham Council moved to a new building on the historic Guest and Chrimes site a mile away, next to Rotherham United’s new football stadium.
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Hide AdThe clearance is being carried out by Ron Hull Demolition, the same company that knocked down Crinoline House, the social services department offices on the site, last year. As that work required the closure of both lanes of Centenary Way, the demolition team was given 35 hours over a weekend to bring down the seven-storey building.
David Wall, contracts director with Ron Hull Demolition, said: “Preparation work on Norfolk House, involving the internal stripping of the building, has been underway for three weeks.
“The actual demolition of the five-storey building, which is now underway, will be quite swift, just a couple of weeks.
“But there is then quite a lot of work to be done, processing concrete and other materials that are to be re-used on the site.”
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Hide AdHe added: “The Civic Centre is scheduled to follow next month and the library will follow on from that.
“The removal of the Centenary Way flyover will be carefully scheduled once the new road layout is completed. We will be handing over a completely cleared site before Christmas.”
The new £40m Tesco Extra store will replace the supermarket’s outdated Rotherham town centre store at Forge Island.
The 6,273sq m supermarket will employ 200 people full-time and 250 part-time.
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Hide AdAround 200 of these are additional to jobs at the existing Tesco store, and all current staff will be guaranteed a job at the new site.
Mr Wall said that the impact of the major demolition work on Rotherham town centre is being kept “to the absolute minimum.”
He added: “The island nature of the site, which has now been ring fenced, means that there should be little disruption to businesses.”