Case Studies

Project Summary:

Ward Recycling were initially invited to the London situated North Pole Depot (NPD) by Faithful+Gould (FG) to view ferrous metal items on site associated with the maintenance of the Eurostar Fleet, that were unsold lots from a prior auction. The removal of these items was in preparation for the potential sale of the site by BRBR (now London and Continental Railways (LCR)).

During the visit Ward Recycling proposed to incorporate a total turn-key solution to prepare the Site, including the demolition of six structures, the removal of hazardous waste, additional non-ferrous, ferrous and rail ballast.

Due to the location and of the Site and proximity to live railway networks restrictions were placed on logistics including, vehicle types and access times. The Site itself was not live, however it was positioned adjacent to a live rail infrastructure and also incorporated a logistic route, requiring 24 hour a day access through, for Network Rail (NR) and associated/complimentary companies involved with the active rail system. Strict traffic management plans were adopted, continually modified and adjusted in line with the progressing programme to ensure that material removals did not impact on either the live rail network or the required access road.

Due to the evolving programme, status of the Works and the access requirement site operatives and the site manager stayed on site Monday to Friday by agreement with the client ensuring safe access through the Site out of normal working hours.

The streamlining of the programme generated a number of activities running concurrently, being managed with weekly forecast meetings on site between Ward Recycling and clients FG/BRBR.

The initial works involved the coordination of the removal of 12,000m of rail and sleepers, taking place concurrently as removal of overhead cabling and associated supporting steel work.

During this Period a number of buildings were demolished, located adjacent and in close proximity to the access road. To avoid disruption to the road arisings were stockpiled and collections of these materials and ballast was limited to days when the road usage was minimised.

All mixed wastes, timber, ferrous and non ferrous, other than the rail track and ballast, was returned to Ward Recycling depots for reprocessing and recycling into a number of saleable products. Coordination and management of outgoing loads was live, reacting daily to the Site and stakeholder requirements by the site manager and Ward Recycling transport management with vehicles travelling from the Midlands to make collections at the agreed times. The optimisation and minimisation of transport movements was carried out via the utilisation of roll on/off vehicles that can carry two containers.

The project produced a recycling rate in excess of 98%, with over 5,000 tonnes of material recycled within the four month programme.