Building Briefs - August 24th

• Dundee City Council announces further wall insulation investment

Nearly £40m has been spent across the city since 2016 to ensure homes are easier to heat and more energy efficient.

This latest round of external wall insulation will be funded by Dundee City Council, the Scottish Government and SSE, and will see properties in Alpin Road and Foggyley Gardens benefit from the programme.

This particular project comprises of 274 properties occupied by council tenants as well as the occupiers of private properties.

The project, if approved, will receive funding from Dundee City Council, Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and Home Energy Efficiency Programme Scotland – Area Based Schemes (HEEPS – ABS) funding.

SSE is managing the work and delivering the programme on behalf of the council.

• The HALO launches marketing campaign for Grade A office building

The HALO Urban Regeneration Company today launches its marketing campaign for the HALO Enterprise and Innovation Centre (HEIC) in Kilmarnock, in partnership with CBRE and Graham + Sibbald.

The four-storey 46,000 sq ft HEIC, which is currently under construction, is set to open its doors in Spring 2021.

The HEIC, which is located in a prime location next to the new Ayrshire College campus and Kilmarnock train station, will provide top quality Grade A workspace and is expected to attract interest from a range of local and national businesses.

The HALO Kilmarnock is a £63 million urban regeneration project on the 23-acre former Johnnie Walker site. It will be the first town centre net zero carbon energy project in Scotland, setting the standard for low carbon energy sites across the UK.

Upon completion, the HALO Kilmarnock will feature Gold Wired Score comms connectivity accreditation, a BREEAM Excellent rating, state of the art technology and a diverse resilient comms system.

The HEIC will include an industry-leading digital, data and cyber training and learning facility within an exciting and digitally connected workspace, placing the HALO at the forefront of the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” which is digital.

• Work starts on second phase of Motherwell station redevelopment

ScotRail has confirmed that work on the second phase of the redevelopment of Motherwell station will start today.

Over the next six months, the redevelopment work will focus on the main station building which will see changes to how customers access platform 2 and 3.

The main stairwell to platform 2 and 3 will close to make way for a larger concourse area, and the mezzanine level of the station will be refurbished with new lighting, flooring, ceilings, and a glazed roof.

Customers will access platform 2 and 3 via a ramp to the side of the station building, which will add some additional time to their journey - particularly customers travelling to and from platform 2. All lifts to station platforms will remain in operation throughout the works.

A new, larger, ScotRail lounge will also be created between platform 2 and 3.

So far, the project has seen the demolition of an old building at the bottom of platform 1, which has made way for a new staff car park.

The taxi rank at the front of Motherwell station has closed to make way for staff portacabins, however taxi pick up and drop off remains available on Muir Street. Changes have also been made to the provision of blue badge parking, reducing from three bays to two.

An overhaul of the public realm outside the station building will take place in 2021, improving links between bus and train services as well as reducing congestion.

• Extra £4m Sustrans funding to support physical distancing across Glasgow

Glasgow City Council’s Spaces for People programme has secured an additional £4 million of funding from Sustrans Scotland to expand, enhance and maintain initiatives that support physical distancing in public places to help suppress COVID-19.

This latest development takes the total amount awarded to the council for Spaces for People initiatives to £7.5m, and will be used to expedite the expansion of temporary travel infrastructure projects that provide extra space for people to walk, wheel and cycle as lockdown restrictions ease.

In addition to the continuance of work to widen footways in busier areas and the implementation of pop-up cycle lanes to encourage active travel, this latest funding boost will facilitate the progress of other measures including plans to develop Park and Pedal and Park and Stride facilities at satellite car parks, along with the roll-out of additional pedestrian priority measures at traffic light controlled junctions.

Clearance of overhanging vegetation that can narrow footways across city neighbourhoods has also been identified as a practical way to make it easier to keep a safe distance from others when travelling actively. Other initiatives to be advanced include the expansion of School Car Free Zones.

These latest plans are expected to complement infrastructure already delivered, with the earliest Spaces for People projects seeing Kelvin Way closed to traffic to facilitate access to Kelvingrove Park, and the creation of a pop-up cycle lane on the Broomielaw to ease physical distancing on nearby footways.

Other measures delivered include the provision of additional pedestrian space around Glasgow Central and Queen Street stations and footway widening across key city centre streets. The east and west sides of George Square have been pedestrianised, with sustainable transport corridors created nearby. Further initiatives introduced in the city centre to stifle COVID-19 include traffic light automation that removes the need for pedestrians to touch equipment to prompt the green man to display.

Short-term measures across neighbourhoods has seen the removal of kerbside parking in areas of high pedestrian footfall to allow for footway widening, with temporary infrastructure now in place in areas including Easterhouse, Cessnock, Bridgeton and Partick.

Spaces for People has also boosted cycling provision across the city, with pop-up cycle lanes now in use on the Broomielaw, London Road, Great Western Road, Gorbals Street and Cumbernauld Road. Locations for future pop-ups will be cognisant of suggestions made by the public via the Commonplace platform, with plans already under consideration for St Andrews Drive, Wallacewell Road and Edinburgh Road.

• Plan to build 18 new huts at Invercauld Estate

Plans have been lodged to build another 18 huts to the 13 structures already in place on the Invercauld Estate near Crathie.

Edinburgh-based firm Galbraith has applied for permission for the project on behalf of the estate.

Documents said the 18 huts would be “off-grid” and six of them would replace caravans already on the site.

A design statement said the huts would also include a composting toilet nearby and there would also be a car park.

It also said the development would be built near the A93 road and that the huts would be available to members of a Hutter club.

• Dundee multi-storeys set for fire safety improvement works

Multi-storey developments in Dundee are set to receive additional fire safety improvement works when councillors consider proposals at the local authority’s neighbourhood services committee today.

The proposals include new door sets for individual flats, new fire doors and replacement floor coverings in communal areas, and the repainting of landings and common areas.

The works follow on from the previous establishment of a multi-storey development fire safety group which found all cladding on Dundee City Council multi-storey blocks meets the building standards for high rise properties.

In addition to this, the council has also worked with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to provide tenants with information surgeries and home safety visits.

It is proposed to permanently close the bin chutes within each multi-storey block in the interests of fire safety and to reflect the changing nature of residential waste disposal.

The current chute openings on landings do not meet recommendations for fire safety standards and are incompatible with today’s volumes of refuse and recycling.