Another Double Bill

That was the format for Northern Branchs' latest evening seminars on the 27th January 2005.The venue was the extensive Alred McAlpines Utility Services training centre at Nash Road ,Manchester who also provided an excellent buffet prior to the start of the evening.

With an attendance on a cold January evening in the mid thirties the first presenter of the evening was introduced by Northern Branch chairman Mark Jordan and has become the norm an opportunity for a younger member to take the first step on presenting.

Maria Manidaki from Mott McDonald Bentley gave a paper with the intriguing title of "Life on Broadway". No, its not a glamorous lifestyle in New York but more down to earth in Bradford. Marias' presentation centred around the diversion and protection of sewers up to 2440mm diameter in Bradford City Centre to facilitate the Bradford Broadway redevelopment and the commercial, technical and financial challenges associated with the project.

The Broadway development is a £300M redevelopment of the city centre involving the demolition of the 1960's city centre and redeveloping the shopping and office blocks..Part of this overall plan is a section termed "connecting the city" and is a £22M plan to cover new roads, sewers, utility apparatus and diversions to prepare the ground for development..

Maria told us about the issues on the sewer network where 2 main trunk sewers crossed the site plus the Eastwood and Bradford becks.

The arger 2440mm sewer was too large and costly to divert so protection and improvements were made to this but other sewers on site were diverted. Total costs of the sewer works were £2.1M plus an additional £0.5M of risk money.

With such a large scheme on a relatively small yet commercially valuable site what were the lessons learned.

Planning,Planning and more Planning was key to actioning a smooth running job.

Health and Safety was crucial again foreseeing and planning out issues.

The Importance of Effective Communications again important with many differing parties and customers invloved (e.g. the local daily papers offices actually overlook the works).

Research before you dig to avoid unpleasant surprises and give accurate forecasting and costs.

Certainly the members of the audience were all impressed with the quality of the presentation and Maria's in-depth knowledge from a young presenter.

So, moving to the main presentation of the evening came Jim Watt, Operations Director of Environmental Aggregates. Jim has worked as an engineering manager with British Gas for 17years until 1995. He then joined CableTel NTL as Head of Consumer Affairs in Glasgow managing the build of the cable network before joining Encore in January 2000.

His presentation covered a no. of areas such as the history of Encore and its raison d'etre. Every year in the UK 16 million tonnes of waste material arise from highways repair and maintenance and was taken to landfill.

Encore was a joint venture between British Gas and Kennedy Contractors and was set up in 1998. The company aims were to evaluate recycling the vast volumes of excavated waste generated by their works. Since then Encore has reprocessed more than 600,000 tonnes of waste which would have otherwise gone to landfill.

Jim then covered the processes and equipment used in the quality process and protocol including inspection (prior to accepting the material), segregation (prevents contamination), pre-screening (maintains quality T1 R), blending (to give best performance) and monitoring (of stocks, costs, markets and material testing).

Jim then looked back at resistance to use of recylced material and against each point put the current position.

• Previous Bad Experience - Material Quality much Improved.
• No Cost Differential - Aggregates Levy.
• Doesn't look The Same - Confidence and Use.
• Unsure-New ground - Leading body/specifications for use.
• Is it HAUC approved - provide RAUC Approval.

Moving on, he then looked at some of the spin - off benefits of using re-cycling such as:

• Mobile equipment can be set up in a short space of time.
• It provides a one stop shop for utilities reducing traffic volumes.
• Ideal locations are "orphan" sites ,old quarries, contaminated land where surplus materials can be used to re-generate environmental eyesores.

Encore also won the VIBES (Vision In Business for the Environment of Scotland) Award for demonstrating "Outstanding Enviromental Good Practice.

Moving towards a close Jom asked "Do we have a choice?". The government does not want us to pay the Aggregate Levy Tax; they want us to find new ways of working and keep the resources we have already produced. Without the levy there is little or no incentive to change.

Reduce,Reuse,Recycle

And closed with the clear message Recycled materials can compete with primary aggregates but they don't cost the Earth.

Clearly an impressive presentation which gave the audience some thought and which was illustrated with a lively question and answer session before we all departed for home (generally it must be said on the basis of one person per car, and there were some gas guzzlers).

Young Persons Network Website

The Northern Branch is pleased to introduce another new aspect of it's website ... a page dedicated to the Northern Branch Young Persons Network. You can visit the page by clicking on the link in the Northern Branch Menu
(above, right).

The page contains details of the next YPN event which will take place on the 9 December, entitled 'How to get ahead in your career: Top tips from successful directors'

Please vist the page and have a look at the high calibre of speakers the YPN have managed to attract, and pass the details on to any young(ish) employees you may have who might benefit from such and event.

The page will be regularly updated in the future to allow those interested in these events to keep abreast of developments.

Regards

Mark Jordan - Northern Branch Chairman

Northern Branch Launches its Young Persons Network

If you would like to attend the launch event or have any queries please contact me on (01756) 706881or at sapna.trivedi@mm-b.co.uk. Alternatively, contact any of our committee members:

andy.clark@yorkshirewater.co.uk
dan.rhodes@morrisonplc.com
jane.arnold@bbul.co.uk

Thank you.
Sapna Trivedi
PIG: Northern Branch Young Persons Network Chairperson

Howard Smith hands over to Mark Jordan at the 40th AGM 

Around 35 Members witnessed Howard Smith undertaking his final duty as Northern Branch Chairman on the 7th April 2004, when he opened the Northern Branch AGM in the Cedar Court Hotel In Huddersfield and introduced the new Chairman for the 2004/5 season, Mark Jordan.

Notes of the meeting and copies of the reports from the Outgoing Chairman, the incoming Chairman and the Honorary Treasurer can be found on the "Meeting Minutes" page.

Details of the new committee can be found on the "Committee members" page and revised contact details can be found on the "Contact Details" page

Chairman's Short Paper Competition

The AGM was followed by Mark Jordan's first event of the year, The Chairman's Short Paper Competition. This is fast becoming a very popular event in the Northern Branch calendar, and attracted 4 young and enthusiastic engineers, who battled it out in front of an audience of around 50 for the accolade of being awarded the Chairman's Cup, sponsored again this year by AVK Aguagas. Details of the entrants, and a precis of their papers can be found on the attached flyer, and copies of their papers can be accessed via the attached links:

• Scott Boyes,
• Martin Griffin
• Mario Christodoulou

Technical Evening Presentation No 1

Between 80 and 90 members and guests from PIG and CIWEM North Wales & North Western crammed into Alfred McAlpine's Nash Road Training Centre on the 21 April for our first Technical Evening of the new year to hear Richard Long of Ewan Associates and David Shepheard of Mott McDonald Bentley present two papers entitled "An Innovative Approach to Sewer Flooding" and "A Strategy for the Delivery of Low Cost Sewer Flooding Solutions" Both papers were absolutely rivetting and generated a great deal of discussion. Synopses of these two papers can be found on the attached flyer.

Everyone had an absolute Ball ...

.... at the Cedar Court in Harrogate on the 15 May, where the Northern Branch held their 15th Annual Spring Ball.

Our Spring Ball organisor Derek Brock and incoming & outgoing Chairmen Mark Jordan & Howard Smith, had a few sleepless nights as they prepared for this traditionally successful event, hoping that the move of venue from the Old Swan to the Cedar Court would go without a hitch. From feedback on the night, and comments received so far, it seems that regular Spring Ballers were giving the new venue a big vote of approval, as everyone seemed to have a teriffic evening as they danced the night away into the wee small hours.

Music was provided by e very lively band called "Spectrum" and Paul Hallas kept diners entertained at their tables with a whole host of magical tricks, that you really couldn't work out how he did it.

Due to the move of venue, numbers are more limited than at the Old Swan, so if you would like to go next year, make sure you respond immediately to the ticket application when it goes out.

1st Northern PIG Karting Challenge - 23rd June 2004

Over 70 people forming 12 Teams of Northern Branch members and guests competed for the first ever PIG karting challenge on what started out as a slightly overcast June evening.

The event was held at the Three Sisters race circuit at Wigan renowned as the fastest kart racing circuit in the country, racing in twin engined pro karts unrestricted and capable of speeds up to 70mph on a circuit of over 1km long. And what an event it was. After a safety briefing on the finer points of racing at 70mph with your rear end only 25mm (1"for those still in old money) off the floor, the consequences of not going around the corners and hitting the tyre walls, it was away to the track and into the karts as the teams jockeyed for position on the grid in the 30min timed practice session. It was soon evident that things weren't going to be easy. Then with everyone lined up on the starting grid for 2 hours of endurance racing, it started to rain and rain it did. But this only added to the fun and excitement of the evening, as the smell of the Wilcox team Barbeque (great idea for next year) drifted across the track. The Uponor team huddled around eating fish and chips discussing team tactics on how to get PIG secretary Peter Jellis around the track in under 2 minutes. Saint Gobain and Hy-Ram were busy trying to straighten out bumpers and axles. McAlpine (Alfred) somehow managed to lose a tyre, so as the evening floated on with pirouettes and spins that any ballet dancer would be proud of it was down to 4 teams in the closing stages Morrisons, Saint Gobain, Team McGuire (Brians Ringers) and Bentley. It was now a case of staying on the track rather than fastest lap time. To cries of "Fix" it was with great relief that Bentley, the Chairman's team crossed the finish line seconds ahead of Morrisons.

Everyone seemed to agree that even with the weather the event was a huge success and one to be repeated next year but not on Wimbledon week. My thanks to everyone who took part and to the companies who supported the event.

Results for the evening were as follows

The fastest lap time for the evening was Ian Creamer of McAlpine

Mark Jordan
Northern Branch Chairman

PS... If anyone was on the M6 at around 9.30 and wondered why there were lots of drivers in just their undies don't worry it was just the PIG karters on their way home ... minus their wet trousers!