Glasgow White Cart Flood Prevention Scheme Wins Prestigious British Construction Industry Award

Halcrow, a CH2M HILL company, (www.halcrow.com) a global full-service consulting, design, construction and operations firm, is pleased to announce that it has received the British Construction Industry (BCI) Environmental Award for the White Cart Water Flood Prevention Scheme, developed and implemented for Scotland’s Glasgow City Council. The BCI Awards are an established and coveted industry accolade recognizing overall excellence in the delivery of building and civil engineering infrastructure projects. The awards were presented on October 10 to a crowd of around 900 of industry elite, who were also in attendance to help BCI celebrate 25 years of construction and engineering excellence.

The judging process for the prestigious BCI Awards is rigorous, with an expert panel of judges either visiting shortlisted entrants’ projects or conducting tough “dragon’s den” style interviews.

Antony Oliver, New Civil Engineer magazine Editorial Director, commented, “Regardless of economic downturns, the judges without question witnessed project delivery performances that could only have been dreamed of in 1988 when these awards began. Whether through use of technology, or through greater attention to planning, people and safety, clients can now expect excellence as the norm.”

The BCI Environmental Award recognizes a project which demonstrates a particular contribution to environmental issues or in which environment issues were a key factor in its concept and/or execution. As the White Cart Water Flood Prevention Scheme protects over 1,750 residential and commercial properties in an extensive area prone to flash flooding through development of three flood storage reservoirs, 4.5km of flood protection walling, six surface pumping stations, and two new bridges, it is no wonder that this project came out on top.

This built-to-last project includes the largest hydro brake flow control devices, which restrict the flow of water at times of heavy rainfall while requiring no power to operate and require little maintenance. In addition, materials use was limited by incorporating an existing glacial feature with one of the dams, and the use of on-site borrow pits to provide material for the earth-filled dams reduced the number of vehicle movements associated with the project by 28,000—a significant environmental benefit during the construction stage.

This project is a great example of several agencies working together to deliver a vital community project, which is expected to prevent over £100M of flood damage over the next 100 years.

The judges took note, commenting, “A highly impressive project. Detailed consultation with many diverse stakeholders in order to get the scheme universally accepted was impressive.”

The White Cart Water Flood Prevention Scheme is already proving its worth, saving 230 homes and businesses from flooding in its first year of operation.

This award for the White Cart Water Flood Prevention Scheme is one of many recent accolades, including Civil Engineer and Environment Quality Award Scheme’s Excellent Whole Project Award and the 2012 Waterways Renaissance Award for Flood Risk Management and a Project Commendation at the Saltire Society Civil Engineering Awards 2011.

CH2M HILL has 3,500 employees in the UK, with its European headquarters based in London. Headquartered near Denver, Colorado, USA, employee-owned CH2M HILL is a global leader in consulting, design, design-build, operations, and program management for government, civil, industrial and energy clients. The firm’s work is concentrated in the areas of water, transportation, environmental, energy, facilities and resources. With US$6.4 billion in revenue and 30,000 employees globally, CH2M HILL is an industry-leading program management, construction management and design firm, as ranked by Engineering News-Record and named a leader in sustainable engineering by Verdantix. The firm has been named a FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For five times and was named Water Company of the Year at the 2012 Global Water Awards. Visit us at www.ch2mhill.com,www.ch2mhillblogs.com/water, twitter.com/ch2mhill and facebook.com/ch2mhill