From this week, the first trucks will be transferring bund material from the Cockenzie Coal Store Site to the former power station site to upfill that area to allow eventual future redevelopment.

Work up to this point has focused on creating the infrastructure needed for this movement of material, including:

• Erecting security fencing
• Laying out the temporary haul road and setting up diversionary footpaths
• Strengthening of the Edinburgh Road to allow trucks to cross

Those works have now been completed and the first trucks will be travelling from the coal store to the power station site, via the reinforced Edinburgh Road crossing. The truck crossing will be manned and light controlled to ensure pedestrian, cyclist and vehicle safety. An Ecological Clerk of Works is attached to the project to oversee vegetation removal and compliance with ecological conditions.

It is estimated the bund material transfer stage of the works will be completed by mid-Spring 2025. Remaining bund works will continue to the end of 2025. These works are 90 per cent funded by the UK Government.

Works to a new link road will also be underway soon and that is due to be completed by end summer 2025. The new road will link the Alder Road junction on the B6371 approach to Cockenzie with the existing B1348 road. Much of the route will follow an existing service road to the former coal plant and be complemented by a lane, largely set back from the main roadway, to encourage safe walking and cycling.

Hub South East is the council’s development partner on this project and they have appointed Balfour Beatty, which is carrying out the works on site.