LOCATION:
Knights Brown was appointed as principal contractor responsible for the quay refurbishment to the fishermen's working area, comprising construction of a storage compound for harbour and fishermen’s materials, and a new fish landing quay, together with associated public realm and utilities works.
Fish landing area and Davit cranes
Concrete access ramps under construction
The works included installing surface water attenuation culverts, surface water drainage and utilities and the provision of cold storage and ice facilities, complete with Davit cranes for loading/offloading vessels.
Elements included the construction of:
- High and low voltage intake substations.
- Hard landscaping, surfacing and ramps to improve public access and promote better interaction with the fishing processes.
- A refuelling point installed on a new pontoon and associated land-based fuel storage tank.
- Fencing, gates, lighting and CCTV, to secure the compound areas.
Key features of the highway and public realm improvements were:
- Self-delivery of civils and infrastructure works including underground attenuation storage (box culverts), ducting and trenching for utilities, concrete slabs and ramps, removal of surfaces and construction of reinforced concrete works to HV and LV sub-station structures.
- Management of specialist subcontractors delivering cold storage unit, utilities, mechanical and electrical systems, surfacing, fencing and gates, including automated sliding gates/fuel storage and dispensary/ pontoon installation.
Challenges
Working in a historic brownfield site, the scheme presented many design challenges. Particularly, we experienced legacy issues such as uncharted services and buried obstacles. In addition, multiple specialist subcontractors were employed to provide a number of unique end user requirements.
Solutions
In overcoming these issues, we communicated openly and honestly, helping all parties understand the impact of decisions on cost and programme. We paid particular attention to improving understanding of the site’s constraints and best practices required.
We were able to recover and reuse site won materials, reducing waste and the requirement to import primary materials, which minimised transportation and associated emissions.
Outcome
The project was delivered successfully and our client was very pleased with the result.
We suggested and instigated a number of value engineering changes that kept the scheme on budget and developed a very close relationship with the harbour master, enabling activities on site to run smoothly.
