Hi Everyone

Thanks to Bobby for this weeks update:

As you can imagine, at the beginning of week the site was very wet from the weekend weather which made things a little difficult to start. 

Pipe Line Drillers are now finished with the Auger Boring under Station Road between Manholes 4 and 3 and are leaving site today. The pipes now need to be lined which is planned for next week - then we will build Manholes 3 and 4.

We are making progress with our work around the Park area but perhaps not as quick as we'd hoped. The manhole at this location will be concrete poured next week.

Work is continuing on the basins and landscaping on Lakeside and the wagon movement to remove the spoil off site will now start to noticably decrease.

And finally, I see we were in the papers this week. If you missed it, here's a link to an article in the Chronicle about the Islands on the Lake: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/norths-newest-islands-important-role-15997783

Enjoy the weekend!

Tony

As you may have noticed, the Biomatrix floating rafts have now been launched into the lake. Thanks to Westmoor Primary School for helping to plant the new vegetation! Once established, these rafts will provide new biodiverse wildlife habitat both on the surface of the lake and also under the waterline. The below-water roots create an ideal refuge and feeding zone for fish within the lake.

Local resident Wally has taken some amazing drone shots of the Biomatrix islands being floated into the lake. 

Did you know? Floating plants absorb 10-20 times more pollutants than they would on shore!

Hi Everyone

As I've alluded to in the last couple of updates, we had some very special guests from Westmoor Primary School on site last week. The school council kindly agreed to put on their gardening gloves to help bring life to Killingworth Lake.

Floating eco-systems, designed and made by specialist contractor Biomatrix Water, have been installed on Killingworth Lake to give plants and animals a place to live, both above and below the water.

Fixed in the centre of the lake, they will also help to keep the lake clear, with their plant roots sucking up nutrients and cleansing the water.

It’s the first time Northumbrian Water has used floating eco-systems as part of a project, to help improve water quality and biodiversity.

The day went down very well and the kids seemed to enjoy planting the floating gardens. I've attached a few photos and a video of the day. It will take a little while to establish, so I have also attached a few pictures of islands from other projects to give an idea of what it may look like.

Project Manager, Lynn Preston, said: “It was a pleasure to have Westmoor Primary School join us in establishing the floating islands with plants and shrubs, and for them to learn about biodiversity with a talk from Biomatrix. As well as being an attractive addition to the lake, the islands will provide a natural habitat for wildlife and fish, as well as keep the lake clean and clear.”

Cllr Carole Burdis, cabinet member for Community Safety, North Tyneside Council, said: “I am really pleased to see local schoolchildren getting involved in the planting and learning all about biodiversity. Killingworth Lake is a beautiful spot and the floating islands look great and bring something different and unique.”

Nicola Hyslop, lead officer for the project from Environment Agency, said: "It′s fantastic that Westmoor Primary School joined us in establishing the floating islands, which will be a great addition to the lake, providing a natural habitat for wildlife."

Thanks once again to our friends at Westmoor Primary School for your help last week, it was much appreiated.

Regards

Tony

Hi Everyone

Lawrence has provided this week's progress update:

The good news is that we have now finished surfacing on Station Road so the Traffic Lights will be removed by the evening of Friday 15th March 2019

Also, Pipeline drillers are now nearly finished and they will have progress to the next manhole later today and hopefully finished by the middle of next week.

The excavation of the basis is continuing at pace and we continued to have 10 wagons full of spoil leaving per day. We expect the wagons to be finished by the end of next week. We will continue to keep on top of the road cleaning by ensuring regular roadsweepers.

Work is also progressing well by the park with two gangs working on laying pipes here, connecting up to the Western basin.

Biomatrix finished their work on Thursday 14th March and have now left site. Their work included 3 floating islands and some gabion baskets filled with plants - give the plants time to develop and the islands will look fantastic I'm sure. More on that later....

I've attached a few pictures from this week

Have a nice weekend

Tony

Hi Everyone

Richard has provided this weeks Portal Update - sadly his last, as he is moving to another Scheme within the organisation from Monday. We wish him the very best of luck with his new project! Laurence Davies will be sitting at his desk - Welcome Laurence!

Progress Update:

Its been another busy week here at Killingworth Lakeside Park.

Our drainage gang in the play area has now bottomed out the excavation for our control chamber and are getting ready to lay the inlet pipe next week.

The earthworks to form the basins is just about there with the final push to finish the east basin and the footpaths around the edges.

Our trenchless drainage was going well until we encountered an obstruction. But in true ESH Stantec form we’ve stuck with it and will have this freed ready for next week.

Biomatrix will be ready early next week to launch the new floating islands into the lake early next week. Reinforcements were drafted in from Westmoor Primary School today with pupils helping to establish plants in the floating islands - there will be more on this visit in another update early next week!

Hope you have a great weekend

Tony

Wow!!!!!

What amazing, talented young people attend Westmoor Primary School (https://www.westmoorprimary.co.uk).  Becky and Tony have been and collected our newly designed Health and Safety Posters from the students. We have had over 100 posters which are all amazing.  Over the next few days we will be judging them, and we have decided that due to the high standard, we are unable to pick just one winner.  So....... we will be choosing 4 posters to be made into posters for our fencing.

Thank you so much for getting involved and becoming part of our team, and for decorating my desk in colour!!!

I will be in touch very soon.

Christine

Hi Everyone

Richard has provided me with this week's progress update:

The week began with a false start when the auger rig used for our trenchless drainage on Station Road broke down. But swift action by the men on site meant that it was soon back up and running and we started the second drive yesterday, so we didn't lose too much time.

On the plus side, on Thursday we hosted a number of graduate engineers from the Wood Group who were keen to see first hand the directional drilling of our trenchless drainage, and understand the work that we do in the background to make it happen. Thanks must go to Stephen Humberstone who works for the Wood Group and is also our EEC Supervisor for this project. Stephen delivered a presentation tot he engineers which explained the operation and complexities we’ve faced.

We are continuing to excavate by the lake to form the new basins. We are also placing topsoil over the West basin and installing a land drain there.

Elsewhere in the park near the play area, our drainage gang is moving forward with installing the temporary works that will allow us to construct our control chamber. The temporary pedestrian diversions that we have in place seem to be working well but should anyone have any concerns or ideas, please let us know.

Next week Biomatrix will start on site. They will be creating and installing floating islands which will be fixed in to the lake. The majority of their work will be done from within our site but there will be some work carried out over on the smaller section the lake where planting baskets will be installed at the edge of the lake.

This work will ultimately create new habitat for wildlife in the lake and improve water quality.

Next week we will also be extending our site fencing from the west end of the new basins towards the play area. This is so we can construct the outlet from the new basin and tie it into our control chamber. This means towards the back end of the week we will be working through the footpath which leads from the play area to the woods. This work will not take long and diversions will be in place.

I've attached a few photos that Richard sent through

Have a nice weekend

Tony

Hi Everyone

Thanks to Richard for providing an update on last week's progress:

We're through!!  We've now managed to complete the first trenchless drive under Station Road; and to the relief of our engineer….in the right place 😊 So now we just have one more trenchless drive to go.

Our earthworks continued to form the new basins despite the rain on Wednesday and we certainly welcomed todays supposedly record high temperature for February in the last 178yrs on Friday!

You may be more aware of our drainage gang working through the play area in the park. Work here is quite tricky due to the limited space available. You may have noticed that we’ve now closed the second of the two footpaths that go around the play area and re-opened the first footpath that we closed. The first footpath will need to be closed every now and again for very short periods as we move machines through from the compound to the work area. As ever, the safety of the public is our main concern, so we have a dedicated person to man the fence when it closes the path and to make sure the temporary footpath surface is clear of dirt. Please bear with us while we carry out this work safely.

Friday also rounded off Ross Morris' weeks work experience here at ESH Stantec before he looks to start an apprenticeship in engineering.

Ross has spent the week working in our commercial, planning and design teams and saved the best till last with site management and engineering here in Killingworth and Longbenton.

I've attached a few photos showing last week's progress that Richard sent through.

Regards

Tony

Hi Everyone

Thanks to Richard on site for this week's progress update:

We’ve made significant progress on site this week undertaking what could arguably be the most risky of our operations to date.

As mentioned last week, we started the drilling of our trenchless drainage which runs underneath Station Road. Today we’re approximately halfway through the first of two drives and have safety passed the gas main which we diverted last month. A big well done to the site team and designers for their hard work to make this happen without incident. I'd also like to thank Northern Gas Networks and their team for their assistance and effort in this work.

You may have noticed, the pipework which will connect into the trenchless drainage is working its way across the play area. To do this we’ve had to temporarily close and divert the footpaths around it. The drainage gang is close to starting work on the control chamber which will ultimately control the water level in the lake. No pressure there then!

The excavation of the basin in the park is progressing well. Surplus soils are being taken off site - as I’m sure you’ve seen, with many wagons coming out of the site!

As we work in this area, we have a team of archaeologists that visit the site. This is so they can look out for remains of historical mine workings, specifically the old wagonways.This is all very interesting stuff!

We’ve now been on site since August 2018 and based in the park since Christmas and its a lovely location to work in - its nice to have the view that we get looking over the lake and the wildlife that it supports.

On the subject of the wildlife, here are some interesting facts about the swans:

- A group of swans is known as a herd, however a group in captivity are called a fleet

- There are six species of swans

- Cygnophbia or kiknophobia is the fear of swans

- Swans are highly intelligent and remember who has been kind to them, or not.

- Swans are protected under the Wildllife and Countryside Act 1981

We’ve also had the pleasure of hosting a group of students from Northumbria University studying a MSC in Safety, Health and Environmental Management, visited our site at Killingworth this week. Our site will provide the basis for their ‘Environmental Management in Practice’ project which they will later present to our Energy & Environmental Advisor (Simon Park) and Site Manager.

I've attached a few photographs of our progress this week and also the visit from our friends from the University.

Regards

Tony

Morning Everyone

Thanks to Bobby for his progress update today:

The Pipe Line Drillers are working on drilling under Station Road and expect to make progress over the next few weeks. The traffic management there is still in place but we are still able to maintain two way traffic.

Work is also progressing well through the park area between Manhole 4 and Manhole 5. It has been necessary to close one of the footpaths here, however once we cross the Footpath we will reinstate it before we close the other Footpath to continue to Manhole 5.

The Lakeside basin excavations are in full flow with wagons taking the excess clay off site - this will continue for the next few weeks.

I've attached a few pictures showing this week's progress.

************************************

We've also also been contacted by a customer asking about the location of the footpath to the south of the Lake once we finish our work. The footpath will be in roughly the same location as it was before we started so shouldn't affect the lakeside wildlife. Below I've attached plans showing the proposed layout:

Plant schedule

1 of 3

2 of 3

3 of 3

Have a nice weekend

Tony