Contractor has been carrying out repair work since January storms loosened panels at Hilton
A road closed in the middle of Woking since January because of repair work Sir Robert McAlpine is having to carry out on loose cladding at a hotel will now remain shut until well into next month.
Woking’s council’s leader Ann-Marie Barker had hoped the road would be open this month but in an update at the end of last week admitted it would now remain shut until “late April”.
McAlpine has built a 23-storey Hilton Hotel in the Surrey town, part of a wider development known as Victoria Square, but which has been plagued by problem cladding panels.
The latest incident occurred in January, in the wake of Storms Eowyn and Herminia arriving within 48 hours of each other, meaning the A320 below has been closed since.
In her update last Friday, Barker told locals: “SRM [McAlpine] are making steady progress but I regret to inform you that it is likely that the closure of Victoria Way will remain in place until late April.
“SRM now need to work on the deep (protruding) panels on the hotel and this requires specialist equipment. This equipment was due to have arrived from Germany last week but has been delayed.
“This has severely impacted the schedule. As a result, SRM can currently only work on one deep panel at a time, until the additional specialist tools arrive in early April.”
Barker added: “I continue to push SRM to work at pace to install the remaining temporary fixings to shallow panels that are required for the road to reopen. I will continue to do all I can to push SRM to accelerate the works.”
McAlpine has previously said: “We have commissioned a bespoke wind model of the entire building and its surroundings which will go beyond the standards, allowing us to understand the microclimate of the area and permitting finite analysis of the loads the cladding has been originally designed to accommodate.
“Once again, we apologise for any inconvenience caused by the closure of Victoria Way. We fully understand the effect that this is having on Woking and empathise with the frustration felt by the residents and local businesses.”
The panels were designed and installed by Prater which has been contacted for comment.
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