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The project involves removing and reapplying the protective coating on the Barking Creek Barrier. To protect the River Roding from contamination, a customised, fully encapsulated hanging scaffold with a uniquely efficient drainage system has been created and installed. The barrier is still active, so the works are put together in a way that allows them to remove the system in…
Working close to a waterway In Leeds, where there are regular high winds, it is inevitable that some of the construction waste will end up in the canal next to the site. With the local community and the environment in mind, the contractor decided to contact WasteShark Leeds to do a canal clean up next to the site. This aquatic…
This contractor has been looking to reduce the amount of single use plastics used on the project. One of the ways they have achieved this is to phase out single use plastic tree guards and now uses tree guards that are manufactured from a biodegradable material. This is a biodegradable shrub shelter is made from bio-based materials derived from sugarcane,…
The site team have displayed a visual environmental community board to provide knowledge and awareness to the community and workforce on how long different materials take to biodegrade, with an aim to help protect and improve the local environment. This includes materials such as paper, cardboard, orange peel, chewing gum, plastic wrappers, cigarette buts, plastic bags, wet wipes, cans and…
The Challenge At our site, reporting of environmental near misses and close calls were poor and it was clear many of the operatives were struggling to identify what environmental hazards might actually be and toolbox talks and posters were not working. Training was needed – but for a 300 strong diverse workforce how could we develop effective training? Many on…
Water monitoring for suspended solids and basic chemistry is common practice across construction but due to sensitivity of the environment (working above source protection zone 1), this contractor implemented a detailed water monitoring plan to analyse a larger suite of physical and chemical parameters (>50 individual parameters per sample) than required by environmental consents. Almost 8000 samples have been collected…
Sites have a responsibility to manage the environment. Construction sites can cause disturbance to the local ecosystem both during and long after completion. It is therefore important to manage this issue and reduce the impact as much as possible. Sites should even further their actions and help enhance the environment, supporting the local area in the future. The below example…
As the main contractor, Osborne used Cellweb Tree Root Protection on their University of Roehampton Library Project. This system confines aggregate materials and makes them stronger, thus increasing the bearing capacity of the sub base materials. This distributes wheel loads evenly and reduces their magnitude at the base of the construction, thus maintaining the soil bulk density at levels that are suitable for…
We are refurbishing the former Royal Mail Building in Liverpool city centre for Liverpool John Moores University. The building has been vacant for 5 years, and during this time has had seagulls nesting on the roof. Our scope of works includes roof works, and we therefore needed to prevent any nesting during the nesting season due to seagulls becoming very…
Construct AI is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that uses natural language processing to create humanlike conversational dialogue. The language model can respond to questions and compose various written content, including articles, social media posts, essays, code and emails. By combining their expertise in engineering, construction project management and technology, they set out to create an artificial intelligence platform to…
On site, there had been a problem with paper hand towels being flushed down the toilets. To avoid this problem from recurring, the site team decided to explore alternatives to traditional paper towels, they needed something that would not cause the same issues as they were having with the traditional paper towels commonly used on site. The site team did…
Working techniques can always be improved, which can reduce the impact on resources whilst still carrying out the same task to the same standard, if not higher. Minimising the use of environmental resources such as the natural water supply can reduce the output costs for the site. Sites can also look to leave behind a lasting legacy and re-build the natural environment…
Taking measures to help maintain a positive approach to the environment provides benefits in itself as well as promoting a good image. The work carried out on a construction site can cause a multitude of environmental effects to the local area. It is important that contractors manage the impact they may cause during the project and ensure that they consider the post…
Feral pigeons can nest all the year round and it can be a struggle, particularly on city centre sites, to prevent them from roosting and building nests in partly constructed buildings. A nesting pigeon can delay work and pigeons can represent a health hazard, with diseases associated with pigeons include psittacosis which is a respiratory disease that humans can catch…
Weekly UAV surveys are carried out using a DJI Mavic 3E quadcopter type drone equipped with an RTK module. Together with ground control points, this allows an extremely accurate aerial survey to be carried out. The site extents are programmed into the aircraft allowing it to generate a flight path which it automatically flies in around 10 minutes from take-off…