Black & Veatch was also able to add value during the construction and procurement phase. The company negotiated a number of single-source subcontracts for civil engineering, tanks and electrical suppliers during the tender. Collaborative working with these key supply chain partners allowed procurement time and cost on the project to be reduced. Several subcontracts were placed with local companies providing economic and social value to the area.
Offsite manufacture was used for chemical dosing equipment, access metalwork and the combined heat and power units. This improved construction productivity, quality and allowed for manufacture in a controlled environment. The boiler house was subcontracted as one package for all the MEICA equipment eliminating the need to manage construction interfaces.
The scope for the tank packages included the construction of the bases eliminating an interface, which along with specialist formwork allowed successive productivity improvements on the four digesters.
One key innovation was to raise the gas bag on a platform so that the condensate pots on the gas pipework were not located below ground level. This innovation avoided a confined space for maintenance and, by way of legacy, is now included in Yorkshire Water’s asset standards.
The project’s embedded carbon footprint was reduced by recycling 120,000 cubic metres of filter media as bedding material rather than being disposed of in landfill.
Yorkshire Water and Black & Veatch also worked closely together to ensure this was a safe project: more than 810,000 man hours have been worked on the project with 1 reportable accident.
