Transforming Dundee City Waterfront

Company’s innovative approach delivers results on key road and infrastructure project.

Sir Robert McAlpine is playing a major role in building Dundee’s future; delivering essential road and infrastructure works as part of the Dundee Central Waterfront masterplan. The project involves the reconfiguration of the main city centre roundabout to accommodate the demolition and reconstruction over the East Coast Main Line of the Marketgait and Tay Station bridges. It also involves the remodelling of access ramps to the Tay Road Bridge. Under an alternative design developed in-house, one of the existing ramps for the Tay Road Bridge was widened rather than replaced, delivering significant environmental and cost savings.

Operating in the heart of the city, efficient traffic management is key to minimising the impact of works to the public. Detailed planning, collaboration with the local authorities and the site team’s proactive engagement with the local community ensured the roundabout and associated road works were completed without any complaints from the travelling public.

With a large amount of demolition work to the South Marketgait Bridge taking place adjacent to and directly over the East Coast Main Line Dock Street Tunnel, the site team’s innovative approach, of packing the void below the bridge with polystyrene, allowed the operation to be undertaken safely during the day without disruption to the rail network.

Long before Sir Robert McAlpine was awarded the contract in August 2011, it was fighting hard to win the bidding war.

Project manager Craig Peggie says the company had been tendering to Dundee City Council to be a part of the process for a number of years.

“We bid for the storm water tank in 2007 and came second last, and contract two (the phase two off-ramps) in 2009 where we were a close second,” he says.

“We then won contract three in 2011, for the new bridge and roads layout, and followed that with the Tay Station Bridge contract in 2012.

“We won this because we came up with a change to the strategy, which ultimately changed and affected traffic flow and knocked eight to nine months off the programme.”

One major change was the removal of the need to construct a temporary structure over South Victoria Dock by simply slicing off the concrete parapet upstands and casting new parapet upstands alongside. This allowed the company to re-open the ramp to its two-lane operation as it was in the 60s and avoided the need for the temporary bridge.

“I came up with the idea when I was driving backwards and forwards to Fife and thinking about how the system could be improved, explain Craig. “I looked at the bridge layout and thought the ramp was too small and needed to be widened.”

It’s such creative thinking that has saved Sir Robert McAlpine’s collaborators both time and money.

Working with Dundee City Council has been a positive collaboration, and Craig, 46, believes the Waterfront project is doing a great deal to boost the city’s self-esteem.

“It’s been refreshing working with the council,” he says. “It’s a really positive collaboration where we share the pain and gain and everybody is focused on getting the best solutions. It’s all about team work. Alongside Dundee City Council, there are various partnerships and contractors, and they’re all integrated.

“But Dundee City Council has been a true collaborative partner in the delivery process with all contractor value engineering suggestions being considered and developed if accepted.”

It’s perhaps a little-known fact that CCTV controls all the traffic lights across the city, and Craig and his team can link into them through UTC who can remotely control them and clear traffic congestion or allow plant manoeuvres.

“This helps avoid delays, “he explains. “It’s very unusual to be able to control traffic lights remotely, but it’s a great success.

“One of the most challenging things is keeping the public travelling unhindered and making sure traffic management routes are moving well.”

Another great innovation used by Sir Robert McAlpine is the pioneering, and bizarre-looking, vacuum excavator.

This acts as a giant sucking machine, hoovering up materials from the ground.

“It’s a challenge dealing with 100 years worth of buried services, such as gas and electricity, and if these are damaged, there could be a serious incident,” says Craig.

“Using the vacuum excavator is a low-risk solution. Rather than digging down, it sucks up the material.”

As the company has been excavating, they have made some fascinating finds, including some old ginger beer bottles. These can be popular with bottle collectors, and, realising this, the labourer who found them gave them to his gran. “She still had a couple from 70 years ago when she was a wee girl so she was over-the-moon to get these!”

The company will have its work cut out this Christmas. The Tay Station project, which involves the demolition of the existing “jack-arch” bridge,

will also involve working flat-out for 56 hours over Christmas to remove the whole railway station. The demolition process will begin on Christmas Eve and absolutely must be finished by 5am on December 27.

“It’s a tight deadline and will be very high pressured,” says Craig. “Once you start to demolish something, there’s no way back. We absolutely need to do all of this in 56 hours – that’s the length of time we’ve been allocated.”

It’s hoped the Dundee Central Waterfront project will be substantially completed by December, with the Tay Station project completion being extended until February to allow final clearance of demolition arisings and erection of the fencing for the next phase.

Recyling for the Future

Some 25,000 tonnes of site-won materials have been recycled and Sir Robert McAlpine’s site team has worked closely with Dundee City Council’s Employability Accord operator Discover Opportunities to exploit local training and employment opportunities.

Accordingly, construction materials have been donated to a training programme provider which works to help the unemployed access sustainable job opportunities.

Not only that, but the company will be using materials from the now demolished Tayside House, bridges and Maxwelltown multis to rebuild Craig Harbour, where the hotly anticipated V&A is being created.

“There are around 40,000 tonnes of recycled material going into infilling Craig Harbour adjacent to the Discovery Dock,” explains Craig. “These advanced works for the V&A create a working compound during the construction phase and the foundation for a water feature once completed.

“Our recycling strategy allowed all of the concrete and blacktop to be re-engineered and incorporated back into the works. The large embankment to the north of the new Marketgait Bridge was re-designed to accommodate the materials which were manufactured on site and as well as saving the City Council money, it removed the necessity for over 2500 heavy goods lorry movements through the city centre.”

Working with the Local Community: Boosting the Local Economy

Sir Robert McAlpine strives to work with local contractors, wherever possible.

This boosts the local economy and creates a sense of wellbeing within the community, as local people gain employment and become involved in building their own future.

The Dundee Waterfront and Tay Station project has involved plant hire from local companies including Arbroath-based Geddes Group, and Letham-based Smeaton Plant.

“It’s not just about Sir Robert McAlpine,” says Craig.

“As a national company we’re helping to boost the local economy, by taking on local contractors. It can vary from 60% to 80% local labour force and we try to keep it within the area we’re working.

“In some cases, we need to hire in specialist contractors from outwith the Dundee area, for example, for the piling and steel work.

“But overall, the majority of people working on a site live within 35 miles.”

The full-list of local contractors is extensive and includes: Blair Contractors Tayside Ltd, Renovo Contracts, Davidson & McLeish, GT Diamond Drilling, George A Walker Ltd, Tayside Contracts, Cemex, Geddes, Contraflow (Perth), Keyline Dundee, James Jack (Dundee), Smeaton Plant Hire, Hilti (Dundee), Binn Skips, Scottish Fuels (Forfar), Met Fab Scotland Ltd, and AC Cleaning Specialists.

Sir Robert McAlpine was named winner in the Community Benefits category at the inaugural Discover Opportunities Employability Awards 2012. The award recognised the team’s work within the community which includes providing work experience through the Get Ready for Work scheme and employing local operatives through the Jobcentre Skills Bank. The company actively takes on school leavers and long-term unemployed and helps give them a step up the ladder.

Craig says: “We’ve taken on some lads full time and received grants to get them on the Get Ready for Work scheme, run by Claverhouse and supported by Dundee City Council. This is great for the community and helps give people a fresh start.”

Given the targets they have to meet, around 34% of all project costs are spent locally. “We’re registered with Dundee Skills Banks and seek to fill vacancies locally,” says Craig.

As a member of the advisory panel at Dundee University and working closely with his own university, Abertay, Craig is involved in advising engineering graduates and helping to put them on placements.

The company also helps out local projects by donating materials to fix up pathways and soft play areas.

It’s the main sponsor for the Dundee Cyclathon, run by Dundee Rotary, and sponsored a medal for the rail to road bridge swim, run by Ye Amphibious Ancients Bathing Association.

Looking to the Future

It’s exciting times for Dundee. The city is one of four campaigning to secure the coveted City of Culture 2017 title and sent off its official bid document earlier this month. Dundee is the only Scottish city shortlisted for the title – an accolade which it is claimed could be worth up to £80 million and create up to 1,000 new jobs for the city.

It’s thanks to pioneering innovations like the V&A and waterfront development that have helped to make the bid possible. There is no doubt that these will attract visitors from all over the world and make people even more proud to live in such a vibrant, forward-thinking city.

The four competing cities (Dundee, Hull, Leicester and Swansea Bay) will make their final presentation to the judges in Londonderry – the current holder of the title – on November 14, and the winner is expected to be announced the following day.

When it comes to the V&A, Sir Robert McAlpine is hopeful of being part of the tendering process, for the construction aspect.

“We are currently tendering the Seabraes Footbridge over the railway at Tesco and the next phase of Dundee Central Waterfront, both of which will be awarded later this year,” says Craig. ‘Phase four of the Waterfront includes creating a “public realm’; parks and a public space area.

“We have also submitted a prequalification document to the V&A team in anticipation of tendering this project as well. It’s a very exciting time for our team in Dundee and we’re keen to be involved in all three of these projects.”

A Portrait of Achievement

The history of Sir Robert McAlpine is a fascinating one spanning almost 150 years.

It was in 1869, aged 22, that the young Robert McAlpine first went into business as a building contractor. Following his first commission, the repair of a mine chimney for £2.9s, more work followed as he established a reputation as a hardworking builder.

He took on a range of challenges from housing estates and factories to ports and railway lines, pioneering construction techniques that pushed the boundaries of engineering convention.

Sir Robert McAlpine’s is a story which provides a direct link from the railways and dockyards of the early 20th century to the airports and motorways of today; from the huge factories of the Victorian era to the manufacturing plants, commercial developments and entertainment venues of the modern age.

It is a story which incorporates projects that have gone on to assume a symbolism of their own: the original Wembley Stadium, Glenfinnan Viaduct, the Eden Project, the Millennium Dome, the M74 completion in Glasgow, Perth Concert Hall, the 02 Arena and the Olympics Stadium.

In short, the story of Sir Robert McAlpine traces a voyage from a world of coal and steam, through two world wars, the dawning of the nuclear age and into the bright new technology of today.