Building Briefs – May 18th

The Port of Grangemouth is well underway with a multi-million pound investment programme including container terminal surfacing upgrades, new terminal operating system, warehouse development and a ship to shore crane investment.

Resurfacing development is under construction which will further increase the capacity of the busy container terminal by around 1,000 TEUs to position the port ahead of the market. This investment of £2 million will be finished later this year in time for the peak volume period and will also cater for any additional demands that may be placed on container storage times as a result of changes to customs processes through Brexit.

Construction has begun on a new 100,000 sq.ft. warehouse development within the port estate which is due to be complete by December this year.

The port is due to welcome a new Liebherr multi-million pound ship to shore container crane in August. There is also further investment in a new IT Terminal operating system with the first phase of this to be implemented in June.

A second phase will take place in August which aims to build on the success of the Vehicle Booking Service introduced in April 2017 by automating the receipt and delivery process for containers in order to further ensure quick turnaround times of haulage vehicles at the port.

The resurfacing work will ensure that the landside operation supports the investment in the crane and Terminal operating system which will deliver faster terminal performance.

Clyde Gateway appoints LSH and GVA to market One Rutherglen Links

Clyde Gateway has appointed commercial property consultancies Lambert Smith Hampton and GVA to jointly market the prestigious One Rutherglen Links office building.

Built in 2015, One Rutherglen has 15,751 sq ft of space remaining in the four-storey building, with more than half now let to SPIE UK.

The modern office development in Rutherglen offers economic running costs, energy efficient and highly flexible floor space, and is one of the few buildings close to Glasgow city centre offering not only grade A space but also an “Excellent” BREEAM rating and an “A” rated Energy Performance.

The appointment is LSH’s second for Clyde Gateway having successfully marketed the Olympia Building in Bridgeton.

City Building makes positive contribution to Mental Health Awareness Week

Staff at City Building have marked Mental Health Awareness Week with a day of fun and stress-busting activities at their Darnick Street headquarters.

From home baking stalls and raffles to mindfulness sessions, the aim was to get people together, start them talking about mental health issues and to introduce them to the internal and external resources available to anyone who needs help.

More than 400 staff took part and although the tour of Ibrox - top prize in a raffle that included tickets to both The Stand Comedy Club and M&D’s Theme Park - was won by a Celtic supporter, other outcomes on the day were more soothing.

Maggie’s cancer support charity delivered mindfulness sessions to help with stress; the Men’s Shed Association came along to explain how their approach to tackling isolation is having a powerful effect on mental wellbeing and SAMH (Scottish Association for Mental Health) provided information on how it supports people in all kinds of situations to recover from mental health issues.

Other activities included counselling on work-life balance, relationships and childcare; help with debt problems, disability and illness and information on how to cope with bereavement and other life events as well as advice on bullying and harassment.

During the day over £1,000 was raised for PANDAS Foundation, a charity dedicated to tackling post and pre-natal depression.

Council hires ‘patcher’ vehicle for road repairs across Shetlands

Shetland Islands Council has hired a specialist road repairs vehicle which will be used to carry out mobile repairs to potholes and other road surface defects over the next couple of weeks.

The Roadmaster ‘Patcher’ carries a supply of chips and bitumen and can quickly repair small potholes using a robotic arm, without the need for road closures.

Hadden continues work on Mariner leisure centre improvements

Work is continuing on a leisure centre improvement project in Falkirk.

Contractor Hadden is delivering the scheme at the Mariner Centre in Camelon.

With mechanical and electrical (M&E) works now underway to create the new soft play area, The Great Mariner Reef, Hadden has informed Falkirk Community Trust it requires seven weeks to carry out all necessary works.

Over £1.2m approved for Caithness roads maintenance programme

More than £1.2 million is to be invested in road maintenance programmes in Caithness.

Members of the Caithness Committee have approved Highland Council’s 2018/19 structural maintenance programmes for roads in the area for the coming year. A total of £1.214m has been approved, of which £539,000 is allocated for winter maintenance with a further capital budget of £785,000.

A total of 116 schemes have been prioritised, including:

Local school children learning from A96 Dualling team

Around 90 pupils from local primary schools attended an event on Wednesday 16 May at Stewarts Hall in Huntly to celebrate the success of Transport Scotland’s schools engagement programme on the A96 Dualling East of Huntly to Aberdeen scheme.

The event let local school children present their projects to a judging panel from Transport Scotland’s design consultancy AmeyArup. Prizes were awarded to the winning teams in different categories.

The Scottish Government is investing in and committed to ensuring Scotland has a highly educated and skilled population equipped with the Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) skills, knowledge and capability required to adapt and thrive in a fast-paced changing world and economy.

As part of this commitment the A96 Dualling schools engagement programme has seen a number of teachers from local schools being trained in the necessary skills to enthuse and inspire children to enter or take an interest in the professions associated with the delivery of the A96 Dualling. The programme involves a series of progressive and linked exercises increasing in complexity depending on the pupils’ ages and skill levels with the emphasis on engineering, linked to real engineers and engineering projects.