15 November 2011

Costain’s £397million project for the design and construction of a network of state-of-the-art recycling and waste management facilities across Greater Manchester is nearing its conclusion. 

Since 8 April 2009, when the Company’s contract with Viridor Laing (Greater Manchester) Ltd started, 37 of the 42 facilities have been completed including the country’s first thermophyllic Mechanical Biological Treatment – Anaerobic Digestion plant (MBT) to treat waste and produce green energy.

The combination of MBT sites, In-Vessel Composting (IVC) plants, a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) and Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) is already making Greater Manchester much greener than before.  The new plants are increasing the recycling and composting rates, producing green energy using anaerobically digested residual waste and minimising the amount of waste that has to be sent to landfill sites.

The contract covers the design and build of 42 facilities spread across 27 sites.  These include 24 HWRCs, five MBTs, four IVCs, one MRF, seven Transfer Loading Stations and two Green Waste facilities.

The recent completion of the HWRC at Adswood Road in Stockport means the network of ‘super recycling sites’ is now in place and the satisfaction level of residents visiting the HWRCs across Greater Manchester is at an all-time high of 99.7%.  In addition the recycling and composting rate that is being achieved at these super recycling sites has increased from 21% in 2004/05 to 50% in 2010/11.

Understandably, said Project Director, John Boyd, the ultimate client, the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority, is very pleased with the impact of the new facilities.

With the exception of Bolton IVC – work on which has only just started – the team hopes to have finished commissioning the remaining plants by Christmas but, as with all new technologies, optimisation may extend this.

By the time the team finally moves off-site, it will be just under three years since the programme to significantly improve Greater Manchester’s performance in recycling and composting, diverting waste from landfill and producing solid recovered fuel to create energy got underway.

On top of the technical achievement, the team has performed impressively on the health and safety front. 

Having just passed the 5.5 million man-hour mark, the Accident Frequency Rate for the entire contract is just 0.15 and getting better as the project nears its conclusion, with the AFR dropping to 0.05 for the last 12-month period and no lost time accidents at all so far in 2011.

 

Ends