Britcon fulfils £2.6m Hull recycling project

Britcon, the building and civil engineering contractor, has completed a £2.6m contract to deliver a new state of the art In-Vessel Composting (IVC) facility near Hull in East Yorkshire.

Britcon both managed the design and build of the IVC, while acting as principal contractor for the entire £4.5m project for Hull-based recycling company, Biowise.

After securing funding from the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Biowise was able to acquire a 10 year contract with Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire Councils to operate the new facility.

The facility will process over 60,000 tonnes per annum of garden and food waste from 263,000 households in the region. Using the Dutch ‘Gicom’ technology, the plant will convert the organic waste into quality compost for use in horticulture and agriculture.

Britcon, based in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, won full management of the contract due to its sector expertise and proven success in delivering complex renewable and recycling sites. The contractor delivered the entire project within a 37 week timeframe and on budget.

James Landau, managing director at Biowise said: “We chose to work with Britcon on the strength if its credentials in similar projects. The fact that we could rely upon one single contractor to deliver all of the complex building elements to house the process was reassuring. Britcon really did work in partnership with us to deliver value engineering and we are delighted with the handover.”

The project also included earthworks, piling operations and major structural works for a reception hall building, two tunnel structures with aerated pipework, plant rooms and biofilters, and a new substation.

In addition, the work consisted of draining, ducting, underground process pipework and service installation, retaining walls, access road, external yards and domestic electrical installation.

John Collingwood, contracts manager at Britcon, added: “This is a very specialist area of building work and the site footprint is very linear which presented a number of challenges, mainly due to access. We had to plan works carefully to meet a very tight timeframe and we were able to achieve this through our proven process of value engineering, ensuring best value at all stages of the project.”

Britcon has a depth of experience working within the waste and renewables sector with particular credentials in biomass, solar PV, CHP, anaerobic digestion and thermal and ground source energy.