Pipe project helps regeneration work
ONE of Glasgow’s biggest engineering projects in recent years has helped to make further regeneration work across the city a reality.
The Camlachie Burn Overflow is a huge underground pipe, designed as a £13 million anti-flooding measure extending across Glasgow’s East End.
It came in preparation for Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games, and as a response to flooding chaos across the East End in July 2002, but its importance has stretched far beyond that.
The restoration of the burn as an open watercourse in Beardmore Park, the creation of a further watercourse in the existing carriageway of Shettleston Road and several other projects have all been made possible by the original investment.
Completed in 2012, ten years after the flooding, the Camlachie Burn Overflow came in on time and in line with the budget.
While the project’s primary purpose was to improve drainage in the area in order to avoid another disastrous flood, its construction also meant regeneration work c ou ld be car r ied out elsewhere.
The risk of potential problems being transferred downstream was removed, and with adequate surface water drainage, several sites which had seen their plans halted could be developed once more.
Glasgow City Council was behind the construction of the pipe itself, but it is a key part of a wider plan of flood prevention carried out by the Metropolitan Glasgow Strategic Drainage Partnership (MGDSP).
The projects making up the next phase of works are receiving funding from MGSDP’s part of the City Deal funding package, along with grant funding from the Scottish Government.
Councillor Liz Cameron, executive member for jobs and the economy, said: “The work we’re doing has wider environmental benefits as well as supporting future growth in the economy.”