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Progress Update - July 2014

Firstly, an apology for not updating the blog as regularly as we’d planned. We will aim to rectify this for the remainder of the ground build programme and beyond to ensure that we keep members and supporters abreast of the latest developments.

When we last posted an update on the build, we made the point that we would have issues and problems to deal with that we would continue to plough through in order to try and keep the project on target. Although our design and build contract enables us to have better control over the project and enables us to be flexible when glitches and problems crop up, we have been hampered by a number of issues not of our own making that have led to delays in the work.

There are a lot of subcontractors and management of the project involved and sometimes these have not gone as smoothly as we would have liked but as anyone who has made the trip down to the site at Moston or who has viewed the pictures and video on line would have seen, we are making significant progress and our new home is taking shape and starting to look like a football ground.

The unforeseen element of the judicial review at the start of the process was a significant delaying factor on the project and we have to recognise that fact. All of our costs for the project were calculated when the construction sector was in a different place than it is now. The market has changed and we have had to revisit many of our price calculations and this has led to increased costs. This is not uncommon in the building industry, where material costs can and do fluctuate and unfortunately we have been affected by that. Also, we are finding that construction projects often take a bit longer than you originally planned. The best analogy that can be made is the weekend DIY job that you carefully plan and get ready for; assembling all the materials to do the job over one weekend and then it’s still not finished months later. Other things intervene and you are thrown off course a bit.

We have encountered a number of unforeseen issues that have delayed our work at Moston. However, the contractor working on moving the old stand from Northwich Victoria that we have secured for our new ground went bust, which we were not expecting, and this meant delays on that part of the job. However, it is worth noting that because of their commitment to us as a football club, the company continued to offer us assistance despite their difficulties. This has been a hallmark of the project to date with many of the people we are working with recognising that we are trying to do something unique in football and wanting to go the extra mile as a result.

Regarding the Northwich stand, we are fortunate, through our consultants FWP, to have secured the services of the original engineer who worked on the original stand at the Drillfield who is now on board helping us with that part of the project. We are also grateful for the support and assistance of David Hewitt of Thor Chemicals who acquired Northwich Victoria’s site at Wincham, for their help in salvaging the stand which we will have on our site. As we have said before, the stand is an important part of North West football heritage and we could not have secured it without this help.

These delays have put the project back a little from our original programme though we are working hard to make up time where we can. We are also trying to re-engineer costs where we can to minimise the extra expense but there will be additional costs that we will have to bear that we cannot get out of. We have also had some delays to the pitch development due to the knock-on effect of the delays mentioned above. While we will incur some extra costs on this, we believe that in the long run we will end up with a better playing surface as a result and that has to be good for the team.

Thanks to the help of our groundworker BPG we have delivered a paddling pool and hosepipe to the local Sure Start Centre for the children to cool off in during the hot weather. The dry weather spell and wind have made the task of grading and leveling the pitch almost impossible. We had to call on the local fire brigade last week to help dampen down the sand being laid on the pitch. Despite the best efforts of the fire brigade we could not get enough water onto the pitch to do the job. In the end we turned to one of our members (Herbie Silcock) who has kindly lent us a generator so that we can power our irrigation system and get the sand to the right consistency for leveling. This work is well underway now and the turf will be arriving on site in the next few days.

We always said from the start of this project that we wanted to get things right and do the best job that we can given our resources. While any delays are unwelcome, we remain totally committed to getting the best outcome that we can for everyone who will use the ground and community facilities.

Despite the inevitable minor delays and glitches that are part and parcel of any construction project, we are making excellent progress on site in Moston and construction is moving ahead at pace. Further details on the build progress are available on the members’ area of this site for those members who have renewed their membership for the new season.

FC United members now have the opportunity to see the build progress for themselves. We are organising tours every Thursday for members to visit the site and get a closer look at the work to date and ask questions about the build programme. To book on a tour simply email John England johnengland@fc-utd.co.uk and state which Thursday you are available, numbers are limited to 20 per tour.

A reminder that you do have to be a paid up member for this current season to take part in the tours so if you have yet to renew your membership for the new season then now is the time to do it.

We’ll have another update in August - promise!


First Posted ~ 17:52 Wed 30 Jul 2014
News ID ~ 5612
Last Updated ~ 02:08 Tue 16 Feb 2021