Union Terrace Gardens

Led by Aberdeen City Council and supported by Principal Contractor Balfour Beatty the Union Terrace Gardens redevelopment, was a critical aspect of the City Centre Masterplan. Aimed at increasing amenity and civic pride, improving tourism and generating inward investment so that residents and visitors can fully enjoy Aberdeen’s special green heart.

The project provided an attractive mix of new and repurposed structures, including new accessible walkways into the gardens from Union Street, formal and informal play areas, an arboretum garden walk for learning, play and leisure including sculpture and lighting installations. Three new buildings sit alongside existing Grade A listed heritage features creating new business opportunities, the gardens arches have been refurbished as gallery and exhibition space. An extensive soft and hard landscape packages were delivered with over 43,000 plants and 80,000 bulbs planted and 4500m2 of granite paving laid. Ringed by some of the city’s finest architecture dating back to 1878 the new designs balanced restoration with contemporary interventions and new uses.

During construction Balfour Beatty worked in partnership with Aberdeen City Council delivering a community benefits plan which supported local priorities and engaged local partner organisations, winning of the ‘Inspiring Futures’ award at the 2022 Chamber of Commerce ‘Northern Star’ Awards in recognition of support provided to education providers within Aberdeen & Aberdeenshire

The project transforms the gardens into a usable, inclusive and dynamic space that will serve generations to come. It was a vision shaped by the people and one which everybody could unite behind.

A702 Westwater Bridge Emergency Scour Remediation

Westwater Bridge suffered significant scour damage after heavy rainfall in December 22 requiring an emergency response to maintain the resilience of the strategic trunk road network.

Failure of a downstream weir caused an increase in flows which washed out material from below the bridge foundations almost 2m deep.  It also caused the river upstream to migrate horizontally by 10m, which is greater than the span of the bridge.

The A702 was initially closed so BEAR could inspect the damage, but was reopened within 12 hours.  A risk assessment balanced the inspection findings and movement data from sensors, against the disruption to traffic on a key transport link with a 15 mile long diversion.  Risks were mitigated by reducing traffic to a single lane and implementing a temporary 7.5t weight restriction.

Immediate steps were taken to obtain SEPA consent, notify landowners of the need to access their land and appoint a subcontractor for urgent remediation works.  This included diverting the watercourse to prevent further washout of the foundations, construction of a temporary access road to get plant and materials to the work areas, and restoring structural integrity by filling the void with concrete.

This was all achieved within two weeks, with the weight restriction lifted once the concrete had hardened. Rock material was then placed to protect the temporary river alignment.

Whilst this event posed significant challenges to transport infrastructure, bypassing the weir has significantly improved the potential for fish to migrate upstream and spawn within this Special Area of Conservation

Ravenscraig WMCL

In May 2022, working collectively as ‘Scotland’s Railway’, Network Rail and Story Contracting commenced innovative engineering works to construct a 5,000t structure underneath the West Coast Main Line (WCML) on behalf of North Lanarkshire Council, to improve connections North and South through Motherwell, increasing employment opportunities for those living in the Ravenscraig and Motherwell area.

During a nine-day line closure over Easter 2023, Story and Network Rail worked around the clock to excavate 36,000t of material from the railway embankment, and remove the track and overhead line equipment before the bridge could be moved into place. The structure was then meticulously moved into place using a Self-Propelled Modular Transporter System, in what is believed to be the largest concrete bridge lift in Europe.

When delivering the project, the team was committed to not only building the structure but creating a legacy of benefits within the local community. Throughout the duration of the works, the team delivered 100-hours of volunteering in North Lanarkshire with the Simon Community to support local people experiencing homelessness. As well as this, Story partnered with Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) to inspire future generations with a career in the rail industry by delivering 400 hours of work experience on the live site to local students. This resulted in great success as Story created a bespoke Quantity Surveying apprenticeship for one of the students taking part.

Upon completion of the regeneration project, the new Ravenscraig bridge will connect communities together by bringing vacant and derelict land back into use, whilst helping to create jobs and connecting people and businesses across the whole region.

Trams to Newhaven Project

As part of a joint venture, Sacyr, Farrans and Neopul (SFN) delivered the Main Infrastructure & Systems Contract for the City of Edinburgh Council for the Edinburgh Tram to Newhaven project.

Construction began in November 2019 and the project was delivered on schedule in spring 2023.

Passenger services on Edinburgh’s new tram line to Newhaven launched on 7th June 2023. The 2.9 mile, eight stop route, consists also of two new substations and an improved cycling and walking infrastructure along the route. The major objective of the project is to improve the connectivity from Edinburgh City Airport through the heart of the city, supporting economic growth and the movement of large numbers of people in an accessible and sustainable way.

The flagship project delivered direct benefits to the wider city:

• Improving connectivity: more than doubling the existing 7 million passengers a year, with each tram capable of carrying up to 250 passengers.
• Increased sustainability: cutting congestion and helping the city deliver its zero carbon 2030 goal.
• Improving lives through creation of high-quality cycling and walking routes
• Opening up areas of the city (Leith and Newhaven) for further development

The project reinvested £715,015 back into the economy, providing 56% supply chain opportunities locally within (50 miles). By adopting a best practice approach to social value and stakeholder engagement, Trams to Newhaven is now an example of best practice in this area.

Dounreay Cementation Plant

Appointed by Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd (DSRL), we are delivering a new shielded Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) Drum Store Extension and an Unshielded Waste Store Extension for shielded waste containers next to the existing Dounreay Cementation Plant (DCP) complex.

Valued in excess of £22m, the complex works programme is on behalf of DSRL – the site license company contracted by Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) for the safe and secure clean-up of the Dounreay nuclear site.

The project will see an existing above ground waste store extended to house intermediate level waste that is expected to be processed and packaged as part of the site’s clean up. It is important project on behalf of Dounreay and will support the continued transformation of the nuclear site into a safe, secure area.

• Dounreay is Scotland’s largest nuclear decommissioning project and is widely recognised as one of Europe’s most challenging nuclear closure programmes.
• The Project is located within the Fuel Critical Area of Dounreay and requires full Security Clearance for all personnel, (3-month process), therefore retention of staff and operatives was key to maintaining progress.
• As most delivery companies does have security clear drivers an external storage yard was established, where goods were offloaded and later brought to site utilising GRAHAM operator and transport vehicles.
• Each roof beam weighs in excess of 25 tonnes and each shield door is 22meters long and weighs approximately 46 tonnes.
• During the construction period we have employed 6 no’s year-out placement students and 5 Graduate Engineers.

M9 Winchburgh

The M9 Winchburgh Junction provides a vital connection to the strategic Trunk Road network to support the growth of the village of Winchburgh, West Lothian, one of the largest privately funded place making schemes in the UK. The village of Winchburgh is proposed to grow to 3,800 residents with a variety of employment opportunities, education facilities and local amenity.

The junction had been proposed since the outline planning approval for the masterplan was issued to Winchburgh Developments Limited (WDL) in 2012. A planning condition of the masterplan approval required a new motorway junction to the north of Winchburgh to be constructed at the interface with the M9 prior to 1,000 residential units being occupied.

The junction’s primary purpose is to alleviate pressure on the communities and local roads surrounding the development by distributing traffic to the strategic road network. It also promotes active travel with a series of footways, crossings, and remote pathways which interface with the wider Winchburgh community and allow all road users to benefit from the scheme.

The proposed junction is located in an area where the existing ground conditions were extremely poor and not conducive to building large earthworks embankments to support the new slip roads. As well as the challenging ground conditions, time was also an issue, as a planning requirement meant that the junction had to be completed prior to the 1000th residential unit being occupied.

Nigg East Quay Development

Farrans completed the East Quay development for Global Energy in Scotland, providing new wet berths with heavy-duty quays to serve the marine renewable energy market, as well as the North Sea oil and gas market.

Marine construction works for the Nigg East Quay commenced in April 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Farrans delivering the quay on schedule and on budget.

At 225m long and 50m wide, the quay increases the leading port facility’s deep water quayside capacity to over 1,200m – placing it amongst the largest in the country.

The opening of the new quay was a game changer for the Port of Nigg, enabling it to service multiple large scale energy sector projects simultaneously and ensuring the port facility has the required infrastructure in place to accommodate the demands for future floating offshore wind sector opportunities.

The works consisted of the construction of a finger quay projecting from the existing quay wall, protection to the existing quay wall to prevent any adverse effects during adjacent dredging works and dredging to the required depths. Farrans designed the whole of the quay, the dredging and the infill to the quay structures. We constructed the infill and the fixed structures of the quay, including quay fittings.

The scope of works consisted of surveys, studies, design, procurement, construction and handover of all elements of the works.

The quay is operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.