A fleet of Liebherr machines have been proving their worth on a challenging Scottish Water project.
Scottish Water has started work on a 13-mile-long strategic water main from near Newton Mearns to the Waterside/Fenwick area. As part of the first phase of its £120 million investment in the drinking water network, the pipeline will benefit more than 200,000 people and businesses across much of Ayrshire and parts of East Renfrewshire.
Following 18 months of preparatory work, including creation of a strip for the water main to be installed, liaison with landowners and statutory bodies and detailed ecological studies, contractors for Scottish Water have been laying sections of pipe adjacent to the route prior to installation.
Working on behalf of Caledonian Water Alliance, one of the contractors working on this project is East Kilbride-based Enviro-Clean. The firm already works with Scottish Water in supplying clean water and waste water services and has undertaken some of the more specialised works on the pipeline contract with machines from Liebherr-Rental Limited.
Whilst Enviro-Clean already undertakes smaller-scale projects, such as mains replacement and repairs for Scottish Water, this new water main contract called for the use of larger equipment than the company has in its existing fleet.
Jimmy Brown, Enviro-Clean’s logistics and operations manager, had previously worked with Liebherr equipment and it was Liebherr Rental that he contacted first to fulfil his requirements for this project. “We were contracted to undertake the excavation of two pairs of pits to allow the main to cross the A77”, he explained.
“Ground conditions were not easy on the job as the surface layers consisted mainly of peat with a deep underlying layer of rock.”
Once the peat was stripped and stockpiled for reinstatement, the underlying rock was exposed but due to the proximity of the pits to the main road, blasting the rock was prohibited. An alternative solution was sought with Liebherr-Rental Ltd’s Ken Buckley supplying a 40 tonne PR 764 dozer to rip out the material along with a 56 tonne R 956 to load a fleet of dumpers with the excavated material.
“We knew the Liebherr machines were strong bits of kit but they really excelled on this tough job,” Jimmy Brown added. “Despite us pushing them to the maximum they performed very well.”
Along with the two larger machines, Enviro-Clean hired a pair of 35 tonne R 936 excavators, a 22 tonne R 922 and a 15 tonne R 914 compact to undertake reinstatement works and assist in excavation work for the piling sub-contractor on site.
A Liebherr PR 736 dozer was also called upon to reinstate the surface layers.
