Meadowhead & Stevenston UID Scheme - Work Package 6

76.6%

Construction Only Award

Project Team
Client: Scottish Water
Designers: Halcrow / Black & Veatch
Constructor: Morrison Black & Veatch

Waste Management Part of the project involved 9 Km of 900mm dia rising main pipe installation in farmers fields across East , South and North Ayrshire. Scottish Water was responsible for negotiating temporary access for the entry to the farmland by the Contractor. The work in the farmland involved temporarily fencing off the required area of land, stripping topsoil for proper storage and eventual reuse and excavation of the trench for installation of pipework. This was followed by the reinstatement of ground profile, replacement of land drainage and topsoil. The site team made every effort to minimise waste material from the work going to landfill. Where new pipes were being installed for the project the topsoil and all the arisings would be kept segregated. All the material excavated would be reused by re-profiling the ground levels after the pipes were installed and backfilled, prior to replacing topsoil. Since no material was taken off site this helped minimise disruption to the farmland because the topsoil remained adjacent to it's original location and no lorries had to be used to export material. In addition the reinstatement was able to begin immediately the ground had been initially re-profiled.

Aerial photo Fairlie Mains to Coast

Farmland pipelaying

At the Kilmarnock end of the project there had to be an 8000m3 storage tank as part of the North Lodge Pumping Station facility. The tank installation was formed with 16 No. rows of parallel 2.6m dia twin wall Weholite pipes. The construction had been preceded by a large ground stabilisation project because of the unstable old mineworkings under the area of the tank .

The North Lodge tank was the largest tank of this type in Europe and was positioned to occupy the rock above the mineworkings at a depth of 6m below the farmers fields. All the excavated rock arising from the site would normally have had to go to landfill. However the Project team were able to negotiate with a local landowner who was trying to upfill an area of ground in order that he could use the raised ground to build houses.

Left: North Lodge Pumping Station twin wall Weholite pipes | Right: North Lodge upfill site aerial image

The rock material was excavated and transported to the developers upfill project since this was within the site boundaries. A haul road was constructed with the initial rock and lorries were used to transport all the material to this site without having to use the public roads.

Relations with Local Community and other stakeholders

The Meadowhead & Stevenston Project covers a large geographical area from the town centre in Irvine in North Ayrshire to the town centre in Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire and farmland between the two towns. It will aid Scottish Water meet stringent EU directives and Bathing Water Standards set by Scottish Environmental Protection Agency.

The project engaged with 76,000 people directly or indirectly listened to them, incoprporated their ideas and suggestions and made sure they were involved and valued at all times. The project was two years in design phase with approx 250 boreholes sunk and investigation work for various routes undertaken. Following discussions with local residents disruption was minimised by use of tunnels and changes to pipe routes where necessary to keep roads and businesses open. To ensure that there was no surprise to local residents there was an extensive communications exercise started well befeore the project started work on site. Information events were held, Community Council Meetings, School Talks, Volunteering events, newsletters and posters used in the local libraries. Competitions were held at local schools to name the major tunnelling machines in Irvine and Kilmarnock Local School job Fairs were attended and parties of school children were given site visits to help them undertand the work that had been undertaken in their vicinity. In Irvine an important annual event is Marymass Fair in August and the project team programmed the completion of all major pipelaying work in the area where the Fair takes place to ensure that the reinstatement was able to be established prior to the Fair taking place. This played a major part in ensuring local life was disrupted as little as possible.In Kilmarnock the pipe route was discussed with East Ayrshire Council and the route was adjusted to avoid the local shopping streets and important areas of the town's main Howard Park. The new route involved 500m of new pipework in the Kilmarnock Water.

Kilmarnock Academy Visit Marymass Fair Scottish Water Information Caravan

To what extent did the use of CEEQUAL influence your project?

Cleaning up Irvine Bay and two Ayrshire rivers, the Kilmarnock Water and the River Irvine, has been the driver for the Meadowhead and Stevenston Project, delivering environmental improvement across a large part of North, East & South Ayrshire.

This grand scale project improves water quality in Ayrshire’s rivers and remained sensitive to environmental impact. Surveys and consultations helped the project team to minimise adverse construction impact eg by fish removal and regulating water abstraction

Left: Howard Park Work, Kilmarnock | Right: Kilmarnock Water pipelaying work

CEEQUAL was used by the project team to raise awareness of the issues relevant to the delivery of the project within the wider community and record the actions taken to alleviate the issues.

Waste Management was minimised by the Project team by the agreed methods used in implementing the work required by the project such as those detailed in the Case Study.

The Relations with the Local Community and Other Stakeholders were maintained to a high standard with the 76.000 customers in the region covered by the project work. Customer expectations were exceeded and through measures such as tunnel naming competitions with local Primary Schools relationships with the project team and local community were strengthened.

Left: Twirling Tina | Right: Bella Borealot