News 

New Tyne Crossing Benefits from Sirius Expertise

Sirius expertise is helping with one of Britain’s biggest transport infrastructure projects.  Construction of the New Tyne Crossing - a second vehicle tunnel under the River Tyne, Newcastle – means dealing with an area of contaminated river bed sediments found on the exact line of the new tunnel. 

Sirius outperformed expectations, reducing the scheduled drilling works to obtain samples for chemical analysis from two weeks to four days, with the client benefiting from a significant cost saving as well as a job well done.  Sirius is also providing earthworks and enabling services to the main contractor, Bouygues Travaux Publics (UK branch) in support of the tunnel construction works.

Part of the new Tyne Crossing will be constructed using immersed tube technology in the river section, which involves dredging a deep trench in the riverbed.  Sirius was brought in by the main contractor, who needed a chemical analysis of the river sediments to allow waste classification before the dredging could take place.

The waste classification was complicated as Bouygues was considering disposing of the dredgings at sea, although they still required the option to dispose of them to landfill.  With that in mind, the chemical testing was undertaken in line with the Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquatic Science (CEFAS), as well as the more common waste acceptance criteria (WAC) tests of the UK Waste Regulations 2005. 

Sirius decided traditional cable percussive drilling from a jack-up platform would be the most suitable and cost-effective method of obtaining samples from the contaminated area for analysis.  As part of this, Sirius liaised with the Port of Tyne Authority and the jack-up platform operator to develop a safe working strategy for the works and minimal disruption to the Port of Tyne and river traffic.

A total of eight boreholes were drilled.  Initially, because of the complex nature of moving and setting out the position of each borehole from a jack-up platform, the drilling works were scheduled to take two weeks.  However, thanks to Sirius’s extensive forward planning, which included detailed method statements for 3D surveying of each borehole position and consideration of the tidal variation, the drilling was completed within four days with a significant cost saving passed on to the client.

The new tunnel is due for completion in December 2010.  The existing tunnel will then close for refurbishment, with both tunnels expected to be open to traffic in December 2011. 

For further information on this or to discuss your own project requirements contact Pat Kane on 0113 264 9960 or pat.kane@thesiriusgroup.com.

Images

<< Back to