Case study detail
Aerial photograph of the site, February 2005
Sustainable Construction at Clydeport: Yorkhill Basin, Glasgow Harbour
Contributed by:
Harris Vallianatos
Organisation:
Sustainable Development Commission
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The Yorkhill Basin sustainable construction case study illustrates the use of good practice techniques by Clydeport on a large scale redevelopment.
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Overview
The Yorkhill Basin case study forms part of the wider redevelopment of Glasgow Harbour, a 10-year project being managed by Clydeport, the port operator responsible for the management of the River Clyde and for providing port facilities and services.
Glasgow Harbour Redevelopment
The redevelopment of Glasgow Harbour began in 2001 as a 10-year flagship development with a projected budget of £1billion. The project is providing a focus for regeneration initiatives on the Clyde and will house the new Riverside Museum. Its aim is to create a new district within Glasgow from a derelict area. The 130 acre development spans 3km of the River Clyde and integrates commercial, retail, residential, recreational and open spaces.
The redevelopment of the Glasgow Harbour site involves:
• The demolition of derelict buildings already present.
• Site preparation for construction.
• Infilling of Yorkhill Basin to provide a new area for the future Riverside Museum.
• Building new roads and walkways to increase access, ease congestion and remove the physical and psychological barriers that currently separate Glasgow Harbour from the city via the Clydeside Expressway.
Yorkhill Basin Development
Yorkhill Basin is currently being infilled to increase the area available for redevelopment. Around 80,000m³ of reclaimed material will be used to infill the basin. Through a number of innovative approaches to these works, the Clydeport development team has employed a range of sustainable construction techniques.
These approaches are summarised below in the following six areas:
• Re-using dredged sand;
• Re-using waste material from site works;
• Minimising the volume of materials sent to landfill;
• Utilising material already present at the site;
• Careful phasing of different works;
• Overcoming legislative constraints.
Summary of Good Practice Techniques and Approaches to Overcome Barriers
• Re-using 58,000m3 of dredged sand from Bowling Bend to form the base layer of infill in Yorkhill Basin:
• Balanced material demand with the available materials present in stockpiles at the site. • Reduced the volume of material required to be brought in by road.
• Minimised the volume of engineering materials that would need to be placed directly in the water.
• Made use of contaminated sediment from maintenance dredging of the River Clyde that would otherwise have been sent to landfill.
• Utilised materials already created at the site and reduced the need for new materials.
• Used a sand layer to improve the geotechnical property of material in the lower basin, increasing the suitability of lower grade material present at the site.
• Reduced the volume of crushed rock material required to be brought in
• The use of a closure bund across the basin mouth to seal the basin, which:
• Minimised the input of fines into the River Clyde by acting as a filter to silt.
• Reduced fuel consumption by minimising the length of the route vehicles take on the site, by using the surface of the bund wall as a haul road.
• Reused breakout slab material from the site that would otherwise have required to be taken off-site.
• Reduced the volume of suitable material that would have needed to be imported to the site.
Effective communication with other developers:
• Allowed surplus high grade material present at the site to be sold to other developers.
• Allowed the identification of other areas of development that could use surplus material from Glasgow Harbour. Material from the harbour was sent to Yoker and Braehead developments.
• Making full use of material already present at the site to minimise the input to landfill and import of material from offsite:
• Victorian cobblestones removed from the quayside to be re-used to create new walkways along the waterfront.
• The material used for the infill of the basin was supplied from the use of demolition rubble and breakout of concrete slab at the site.
• Material was sorted according to grading, with the high grade material used to construct roadways and the low grade material used to infill the basin.
Effective work scheduling to support good environmental practice by:
• Ensuring early completion of the bund wall allowed its use as a haul road to overcome access issues for the movement of stockpiled material around the site.
• The completion of the bridge across the River Kelvin was phased to coincide with the relocation of excavation works to new stockpiles located across the River Kelvin. Ensuring that these two events concurred minimised the length of the haul route.
Overcoming legislative constraints:
• By liaising with SEPA, Clydeport was able to identify a method by which legislative barriers could be overcome. By identifying alternative approaches to implementing legislation, it was possible to maximise use of the material present and allow the infill of Yorkhill Basin to be undertaken.
• The definition of waste within the Waste Management License deems that contaminated material cannot be used for reclamation. To overcome this barrier, the infill was regulated by FEPA regulations. By screening the stockpiles for size and contamination, the margins of this legislation were met and the levels of contaminants were deemed suitable for the proposed use.
This case study has been reproduced, with permission, from the 2006 portfolio of The Business Council for Sustainable Development.
Key features
energy
land use
materials
regeneration
waste initiatives
Key data
Project Team: Envirocentre, Glasgow Harbour Ltd
Cost: Estimated value of over £1 billion when complete
Local Authority:
Client: N/A
Links
Clydeport Home Page
Glasgow Harbour Development Home Page
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