Building Briefs – June 22nd

Hardies Property & Construction Consultants has completed its involvement in the extensive redevelopment and refurbishment of DC Thomson’s Dundee headquarters.

The Meadowside building has been transformed into a state-of-the-art, bright and flexible office environment.

Hardies provided a range of project management and quantity surveying services to the complex project, including stripping back the landmark 10 storey sandstone listed building to a shell, completely modernising the internals and overhauling the external fabric.

The end result is the delivery of a first class, technologically advanced and contemporary building from which DC Thomson will be able to operate for generations to come.

Nearly 600 staff members who work in newspapers, magazines, digital media and across the DC Thomson group of companies are based in the renovated open plan office spaces. It’s a return to the HQ built for DC Thomson in the early 1900s, originally opened in 1906.

1,000th AWPR beam now in place

A significant milestone was reached on the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route/Balmedie to Tipperty (AWPR/B-T) yesterday, when the project’s 1,000th beam was lifted into place at the new Goval Junction.

The first beams for the project arrived back in October 2015 when 23 beams, each 33m long, were put into place at the Tipperty Underpass. Now, less than two years later, with 17 beams at 15.9m long being installed at Goval, over 1,000 beams have been delivered to the north east and lifted into place; 40 of which were almost 50m long.

A further 183 beams are still required for the project, including ten 43m long beams for the Stonehaven Junction.

The remaining beams, which are between 9m and 17m long, are required for a small number of bridges still to be completed across the project and are all planned to be in place by Autumn 2017.

When complete, the AWPR/B-T will help to reduce congestion, cut journey times, improve safety and lower pollution in Aberdeen City Centre. It will also enable local authorities to develop public transport solutions.

Central Belt building contractors invited to meet Lovell at supply chain partner day

Building companies across Scotland’s central belt, from sole traders through to large regional contractors, are being invited to attend a special supply chain partner day as partnership housing provider Lovell seeks to appoint a broad range of specialist suppliers to help the company meet ambitious growth plans for 2017, 2018 and 2019.

The supply chain partner day is due to take place on July 13 at Howden Park Centre, Livingston.

Lovell directors will be on hand to answer questions about the company’s development plans over the next few years. They are looking for suppliers across a broad range of building trades and other related services.

During 2017, Lovell expects to build more than 450 new homes, an increase of more than 60% on the number of units completed in 2016. Activity is expected to increase by a further 7% in 2018. With a number of new developments planned across the central belt, Lovell is particularly interested to meet individuals and companies with relevant local housing experience.

The Supply Chain Partner Day is free to attend and interested parties are encouraged to drop in between 10am and 2pm. For further information please contact bizdev.scotland@lovell.co.uk.

Work starts on Scotland’s first indoor vertical farm

Scotland’s first indoor vertical farm is due to be up and running later this year.

The Scotsman reports that the experimental facility, currently being built on the outskirts of Dundee, will be the first full-scale scheme of its type in the country.

Initial crops will be herbs and salad plants, which will be cultivated in vertically stacked layers with LED lighting and special hydroponic systems supplying nourishment.

Tomatoes, cucumbers and strawberries are to be trialled at a later stage.

It is hoped vertical farming can help solve the problem of feeding the expanding world population and minimise damage to the planet from increased agriculture.

Growing in this way can offer a number of benefits over traditional outdoor methods, such as reducing the amount of space required, cutting the need for pesticides and allowing year round cultivation.

Their compact nature also means the farms can be sited in urban areas, keeping produce local and cutting transportation.

The Dundee project is the brainchild of Scottish-based vertical farming business Intelligent Growth Solutions and is being carried out in collaboration with crop researchers at the James Hutton Institute and automation business Omron.

School-children get creative for historic Calton Hill development

Esh Border Construction welcomed a group of school-children to Edinburgh’s Calton Hill development after the youngsters created a series of unique artworks for the historic City Observatory site.

Pupils from Abbeyhill and Leith Walk Primary School worked with artist Tessa Lynch to produce the panorama charcoal drawings which will be displayed on hoardings around the project.

They were delivered to Esh Border Construction contract manger Steven Kelly earlier this week.

The drawings were inspired by artist Robert Barker’s iconic Panorama of Edinburgh from Calton Hill, 1792. Before completing them primary four to seven pupils visited Calton Hill and made observational drawings from the Hill, then worked together in a follow-up workshop in classroom to produce the panoramas.

Livingston-based Esh Border Construction is working with Edinburgh City Council and Collective, a non-profit visual art organisation which will manage the site when it opens in 2018, on the £3 million project.

As well as taking delivery of the drawings Steven also handed over a cheque to Collective from Esh Border Construction’s bursary scheme – Esh Communities.

The site – which is credited as being the 19th century ‘birthplace of astronomy and timekeeping in Edinburgh’ – will be opened-up for public use, with a new restaurant and gallery space.

Council to explore potential for large scale Orkney wind farm

Plans have been revealed to explore the potential of a new large scale wind farm for Orkney.

The council said the scheme would provide an important source of income as it “prepares for a major fall in Government funding in the years ahead”.

An initial study commissioned last year looked at four potential sites, two of which have since been ruled out as unsuitable for this kind of development.

Councillors have met this week to consider the report’s findings and have now asked for further work to be carried out.

Other sites’ potential as a wind farm location will be examined in more detail in discussion with the landowners.

The next phase of work will involve drawing up detailed proposals for a large scale wind farm. Following this, a consultation on the draft proposals will take place to gather feedback from the public, local businesses and other organisations.

A wind farm would require new grid links to the Scottish mainland, which would also support the further development of marine energy projects in our local waters.

Councillors will discuss a further report on the next phase of work early next year.

Work to begin on A76 resurfacing project

Work is to begin on a £382,000 resurfacing project in East Ayrshire.

Scotland TranServ will start carrying out works on the A76 Skerrington Roundabout near Cumnock from Friday, 23 June. Completion is scheduled for Tuesday, 27 June.

The scheme will use innovative crack and seat method to repair around 600 metres of the trunk road, addressing potholes and structural cracking.

To carry out the project safely, a programme of traffic management will be implemented. Diversions will be in place.

Work continues on £3.6m West Lothian water upgrade project

Work is continuing on a £3.6 million water quality upgrade project in West Lothian.

Scottish Water’s partner Caledonia Water Alliance (CWA) is refurbishing around 46km of water mains pipe in Armadale, Blackburn and Broxburn.

The second phase of the scheme is now underway in Blackburn. Work will take place on the following streets; Hopefield Road, Hopefield Drive, Hopefield Place, Whitehill Drive, Whitehill View, Yule Place, Yule Terrace and Almond Road.

The works are scheduled to be finished by the end of August.

Milngavie skate park complete

Work on a £120,000 skate park in Milngavie is now complete.

The facility at Lennox Park was built in partnership with contractor Bendcrete and has been designed to meet the needs of both inexperienced and experienced users.