A Cadishead hazardous waste treatment and recovery facility has turned to a team of local businesses to support a £500,000 upgrade of its treatment tank roofs, part of a £1.3million overall site investment programme.
Northwest civil engineers, fabricators, painters, scaffolders, and crane specialists worked in partnership with leading waste specialist, CSG on a precision project to replace the 50-year-old tank roofs.
The 28 tonne roofs followed the original 1948 designs and required precision workmanship for their safe installation on the tanks.
CSG project engineer, Stephen Rodgers, who headed up the work, said: “This was a complex engineering installation that was integral to our business operations.
“As part of our routine site maintenance a series of seven treatment tank roofs were identified as needing to be replaced. Due to the size and complexities of the project it was not only important to support local businesses, but we also felt they could deliver the level of expertise we required.”
Stockport-based civil and structural engineers, HBL Associates were challenged with using the original 1948 design drawings to create a new roof, fit for the next 50 years.”
Steve Holmes, director for HBL Associates, said: “It’s always a delight to have the opportunity to review original drawings, however old they are, and the old roofs have certainly stood the test of time. We used our latest analysis techniques to re-model the 5,000 m3 tank roofs to meet today’s standards.
“We identified additional strengthening works at critical points of the 28-tonne structure to cope with the strain while the roof was lifted into place. We are looking forward to maintaining our relationship with the CSG team.”
Steel fabricators, Bennet and Skelland, from Warrington, were charged with building the new cone shaped roofs. Due to their size, each roof was delivered in sections and constructed on site using more than 4000 bolts for the largest roofs.
As a result of wear and tear, the largest tanks had to be lowered by 5-feet before a new roof could be installed. CSG’s project engineer and experts from HBL Associates and Bennet and Skelland devised a lifting procedure which could safely remove the old roof and top of the tank in one piece.
Ian Parker, director for Bennet and Skelland, said: “The roof removal was a challenging task as the structure was delicate and not perfectly circular. We used a 500-tonne crane, from John Sutch Cranes in Liverpool to both remove the old roof and suspend the new structure as we carefully fixed it in place.”
The project was completed with the support of Warrington scaffolders, Omega and commercial decorators Hankinson from Ellesmere Port.
Stephen Rodgers added: “As a company we are committed to exploring innovative technology to process and recover as many waste materials as possible. The investment in our site’s maintenance and upgrade to the infrastructure, is an essential part of securing its future. We are very pleased to work in partnership with local specialists, supporting highly skilled jobs in the region, and expect to continue this with other projects.”
For more information visit www.csg.co.uk
