Road work keeps Clydebank project on track
Once a thriving industrial site famous as the shipyard where the QE2 and Queen Mary were built, the sizeable project at Queens Quay on the Clyde this week passed another development milestone, as work on the roads infrastructure started.
The area is undergoing a transformation into a mixeduse waterfront development of 80 acres.
Designed to be Clydebank’s new business and living quarter, the site, which includes 1.6km of river frontage and the 150ft high Titan Crane, is the former location of John Brown’s shipyard.
The development work has already provided open views to the riverside for the first time in many years.
In the final infrastructure procurement exercise for the development, Clydeside Regeneration (CRL) announced its appointment of civil engineering contractor I&H Brown to undertake road works at Queens Quay.
Duncan Graham, of CRL says: “It will be a momentous achievement to provide access to the Clydebank river frontage to the public for the first time in a very long time.
“The main spine road will provide access to all parts of the development.”
I&H Brown will install the road to serve the whole development area, together with utilities by multi-utility connections company Energetics, and pipework for the proposed district heating network.
The road will serve every development plot on the site, which will be available from next spring for house building.
Queens Quay is a couple of minutes’ walk from Clydebank town centre and access is designed to connect the public transport hub with walkways along the River Clyde.
Included in the £250 million regeneration project will be more than 1,000 homes, health and leisure facilities, office and retail elements and civic spaces including parkland and a riverside cycleway.
The road works programme will start this week and runs for about 42 weeks. It will run alongside a project by engineering company George Leslie to complete all marine works associated with the basin and river frontage.
Once finished, the improvements, which have been fully funded by West Dunbartonshire Council, will allow public access to the river frontage and quayside around the basin.
The Queens Quay site is owned by CRL with West Dunbartonshire Council funding strategic infrastructure works.
I&H Brown has already completed a 20-week programme on the site, preparing the land for creation of the health quarter, which includes a £15m care home and state-of-the-art £25m health centre.
Construction of the care home and health centre will start this summer.
Housing, retail and leisure elements will follow to complement the existing facilities at Queens Quay, including West Dunbartonshire Council’s offices at Aurora House and a £23.5m leisure centre which opened last year.
The layout of Queens Quay will be a traditional urban grid but the creation of an abundance of green spaces is included in the plans.
These have been designed to have more than one function, such as enhancing biodiversity as well as recreation.
“It will provide access to the Clydebank river frontage to the public for the first time in a very long time”
DUNCAN GRAHAM
CLYDESIDE REGENERATION