22 March 2011

Institution of Civil Engineers’ President, Peter Hansford, visited a Costain site recently as part of his President’s Visit to the North West.

Together with a party of distinguished guests, he visited the Longley Lane project, which is one of the 26 sites that form part of Costain’s £397million Design & Construct PFI Contract to build new waste treatment and recycling facilities for the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA).

The President and his guests were hosted on the visit by staff from GMWDA, Viridor Laing and Viridor Waste, together with several members of the Costain team. The guests were shown around the newly constructed Mechanical Biological Treatment – Anaerobic Digestion (MBT-AD) plant, which will sort and recover recyclable materials, produce high calorific value Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF), for use in a new Thermal Power Station being built at Runcorn, and produce gas from the AD process that will be used to produce electricity to both power the plant and feed back into the national grid network.

Other facilities constructed on the Longley Lane site include a new Household Waste Recycling Centre, a Materials Recovery Facility, a Green Waste shredding facility, new offices, workshops and vehicle washes for Manchester City Council, together with a new Visitor Education Centre, which will be used to inform and educate school children in the value of waste reduction and recycling.  

Alan Butler, ICE NW Regional Director, commenting on the visit said: “The Project in many ways speaks for itself, in both the scope and quality of the facilities being constructed. Peter Hansford, and many of the President’s party, remarked that they were very impressed by the excellent and knowledgeable Costain staff, who are a real credit to the organisation.”

Costain GMW Construction Manager, Paul Howells, commented: “We were very pleased to host the ICE President’s visit to the Longley Lane site, as it presented a chance to showcase the excellent waste recovery and recycling facilities that have been constructed, not only on this site, but throughout the Greater Manchester Waste project.” 

Process Operations Manager, Peter McCluskey, added that it was the co-operation being demonstrated by all parties involved in the GMW project that was a major contributor to its overall success.
  

Ends