“The ‘go-to’ civil engineering team for Bellway’s eastern region”

Alex Szarawarski is a Senior Technical Manager at Bellway Homes (Eastern Counties). He regularly works with Woods Hardwick’s civil engineers on residential projects from 80 to 300+ units across the region. Its a relationship that continues to grow, and is built on solid foundations (the only pun, we promise!).

“Right at the start of the project I work with the land team on bids – it’s my role to ensure that the site is deliverable. I look to John (Freeman) and Gemma (Gros) to de-risk the projects and advise on opportunities”

The Eastern region is relatively young – set up in February last year. And it covers a large area, stretching from Huntingdon up past Lincoln, just south of Hull, down to Norfolk and from Lowestoft, back along the A14.

“Being a new region, we are working hard to procure, design and deliver sites to meet our business plan – we rely on great consultants to duck and dive with us. We challenge our consultants a lot – time and time again, John and Gemma are the ones coming back with workable solutions.”

One project in particular is shortly going to move from the planning stage to boots on the ground. “Our development of 116 new homes at Witchford in Cambridgeshire is due to secure planning at the end of February, and then work is due to start on site in March. It’s a complicated site – with off site S278 works, service diversions and a complex storm water strategy.” Alex continues, “It has been up to the Woods Hardwick team to unpick all the challenges to ensure we can deliver.”

For Alex and Bellway, the focus is always on good design.

“We take the time and engage the right people to deliver a well laid out scheme that our future customers will want to be part of. I can’t help but invest in a scheme personally. With Gemma’s support, we have set up standard drawing conventions – meaning that clarity and quality are always front and centre.”

He concludes, “By March, we’ll have eight live sites and so we rely hugely on the expertise of our consultants and the teams behind them. I can’t speak highly enough of John and Gemma – I trust their judgement implicitly – and as such, there becomes no ‘us and them’ – we are all on the same team.”

Woods Hardwick’s civil engineering team is currently recruiting in our Bedford office. Find out more.