Premier Construction Scotland

Kijlstra speeds up Glasgow Environmental Programme

Kijstra
Written by Roma Publications

Kijstra

Kijlstra, Europe’s leading manufacturer of precast drainage products and solutions have been appointed by Scottish Water as one of its framework suppliers.

Working for contractor George Leslie Ltd, they have supplied a range of CSO Chambers, large Vario Manholes, Headwalls, and Kiosk Bases in various sizes for a number of sites within the Glasgow Environmental Programme, including Sharston Road.

Mike Gilmour, a project manager at Scottish Water, said:

“Precast has a number of advantages over in-situ construction. In terms of the main benefits of precast over in-situ, the first is quality. Bad weather and unfavourable site conditions don’t affect it. There are also health and safety benefits due to the reduced number of construction operations carried out on site, leading to less traffic movements in and around site, and therefore a greatly reduced carbon footprint.”

“The benefits of using precast have all come to the fore on the eleven contracts that George Leslie Ltd has already completed using Kijlstra CSO chambers, said Steve Gainsley, project manager with Kijlstra.

“At one of the first installations at Morriston Street, we supplied a panel system for a CSO located in school grounds next to a busy road. The programme timescales were tight and the precast solution allowed the programme dates to be achieved.

“At another site, Johnson Drive, the site was actually in the car park of an active medical centre. Full possession of the car park to carry out works was a matter of hours. Using a two-piece Vario chamber allowed installation within 3 hours, and at night minimising disruption to the public.”

Since introducing their extensive range of products into the UK, Kijlstra has and continues to set new standards in supplying drainage solutions to the construction industry. The company has supplied products to a number of high profile developments including, the London Olympics, London Gateway, Manchester Metro Link, Medmerry sea defence scheme, as well as major road building projects. Kijlstra have also recently been awarded the A1M contract by Carillion / Morgan Sindall JV to supply over 1400 manholes.

One of Kijlstra’s most widely supplied products is their square manhole. With a proven track record over several decades, throughout the Netherlands and Europe it has now become the product of choice for many of the UK’s major contractors and water companies.

Key benefits of Kijlstra’s manhole systems include, they can be installed up to 16 times quicker than traditional systems on standard units, by just a couple of men and an excavator typically in 30 minutes, compared to the one to two days it takes on average to install traditional manholes.

Manufactured from self-compacting concrete and poured monolithically with benching to guarantee optimum size consistency and strength, the system gives a 120-year design life.

This off-site ability means Kijlstra’s system is cost effective in multiple ways, from requiring less men, materials and plant to start with, to taking less time, and therefore money, to install.

Different modules such as base units, raising units or slab units come with a socket-spigot connection which is 100% watertight without the use of cements or sealants. The manhole can be fitted with various options including flow control devices such as flap valves, penstocks and hydrobrakes, valves and pipework for pump stations and valve chambers, and special chamber linings.

Kijlstra is also renowned for designing and manufacturing complex, bespoke drainage solutions. Their expertise and ability to work with contractors and consultants at early design stage, has resulted in innovative cost effective solutions supplied to some of the UK’s largest water and wastewater projects

With any construction project, time is money. The quicker you can get on site and the less time you spend there, the lower the cost – one of the main reasons why contractor NMCNomenca has worked with Kijlstra on several projects. These include, Severn Trent Water’s £2.8 million sewage tertiary treatment works project at Crankley Point in Newark, where NMCNomenca built the facility’s new activated sludge plant using Kijlstra precast concrete sections.

Working with NMCNomenca Kijlstra designed and supplied the large, complex concrete tank structure, which measured almost 60 m in length, 15 m in width and approximately 6 m in depth.

 

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