Building Briefs – June 2nd

Ross Fountain restoration gets underway in Edinburgh

Work has begun to restore Edinburgh’s A-listed Ross Fountain to its former glory.

After initial inspections, the cast-iron feature will be removed piece by piece this summer from West Princes Street Gardens before being repaired and returned in Spring 2018.

Crafted in Antione Durenne’s foundry in France in the early 1800s, the structure was gifted to the city by local gunsmith Daniel Ross. The year-long restoration project under the Ross Development Trust will see new foundations and waterworks, enabling the fountain to operate for the first time in years.

The Ross development Trust is undertaking a series of projects in West Princes Street Gardens in partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council, including the restoration of the Ross Fountain, refurbishment of the Gardener’s Cottage and a new Ross Pavilion.

The conservation will be carried out by Industrial Heritage Consulting Limited, which worked with Lost Art Ltd in 2013 to restore the Grand Central Fountain in Paisley. Their engineers will temporarily remove the Fountain this summer to renovate the internal structure and return it to full working condition.

Spring opening for all M8 M73 M74 roads

Keith Brown has announced that, after more than three years in construction, all main roads connected with the M8 M73 M74 Motorway Improvements Project were opened to traffic in Spring 2017, as originally planned.

The cabinet secretary for economy, jobs and fair work confirmed that, after “a mammoth effort” by the contractor, Scottish Roads Partnership, more than 20,000 road cones, enough to span the distance between Glasgow and Fort William, were removed from the road network over the last 24 hours.

That means the new and improved motorways across the project are now capable of operating at full capacity.

This paves the way for road users to enjoy the full benefits of the scheme, which include peak journey-time savings of 20 minutes on the M8 and 15 minutes at Raith Interchange.

Other key benefits include more reliable journey times, enhanced safety and reduced emissions.

Safety first at Stephen development

A Perth housebuilding company has been revealed as one of the safest home builders in the UK.

Site manager Ian Barrett has won a National House Building Council (NHBC) Commendation Award for his team’s work at ‘The Beeches’ development in Carnock, by Dunfermline. The 41 homes at The Beeches have been created by Perth-based housebuilders Stephen.

All of the competing sites have been visited by NHBC Health and Safety advisors and were scored against the highly stringent health and safety standards set for the competition. Ian will now go on to compete for the Highly Commended and National titles, with the winners being announced at a gala event on 7 July 2017.

Work on Hare Hill Windfarm extension complete

Work on a wind farm extension project in East Ayrshire is now complete.

ScottishPower Renewables has installed a further 35 turbines to the original 20-turbine Hare Hill Windfarm site, taking the site’s full capacity up to 43MW.

The scheme is part of a two-year £650 million investment plan by ScottishPower Renewables to build eight new onshore windfarms in Scotland, which will deliver nearly 500 MW of new renewable electricity for the national grid.

Almost 1,000 workers and support staff were inducted on the windfarm over a 16 month period, with a peak monthly workforce of over 165 personnel.

Overall, the site will now contribute approximately £3.7m to the local authority and New Cumnock Community Council for the benefit of local community projects over the next 25 years.

Upgrade completed on New Elgin shared use path

Work has been completed on a shared use path which provides a traffic-free route through a busy part of Elgin.

The £310,000 project in New Elgin has been funded by sustainable travel charity Sustrans as part of its community links programme.

The 3m wide path will help to encourage walking and cycling to the new Elgin High School for pupils and for other members of the fast-growing New Elgin community.

The route follows that of an existing path which was upgraded and widened to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists.

It links the expanding residential areas of south-west Elgin to the new high school currently under construction.

The school campus – due for completion later this year – will be a community facility and will have a high usage level outwith school hours.

The upgraded path, which runs for 1km, also links with the core paths network in the surrounding countryside and with the national cycle route.

£530,000 resurfacing scheme to begin on A82 road

Work is to start on a £530,000 road resurfacing scheme in the Highlands.

BEAR Scotland will begin repairing the A82 between Fort Augustus and Invermoriston from Wednesday, 07 June.

The scheme involves resurfacing over 3km of carriageway to establish a smoother surface and safer journeys for road users.

Work will take place over 17 nights between 7pm – 5am, Sunday nights to Friday mornings, with no work scheduled to take place on Friday or Saturday nights. Traffic management and diversions will be in place.

Scotland TranServ to begin A75 resurfacing programme

Scotland TranServ is to begin a £475,000 resurfacing scheme on the A75.

The project will see a 600 metre stretch of the road repaired from Priestholm to Hardrigg Lodge. Work will take place between Thursday, 08 June and Friday, 16 June.

To carry out the project safely, the following temporary traffic management schedule will be implemented:

The scheme will bring total road surface investment in the area between Annan and Gretna in the last year to almost £2 million.