Haulbowline remediation project wins Engineering Project of the Year 2019

At this year’s Engineer’s Ireland Excellence Awards the East Tip Haulbowline Island Remediation project won the premier award, Engineering Project of the Year 2019. The project also picked up another award for Local Authority Initiative of the year. These highly competitive awards recognise the highest level of achievement in engineering providing peer and public recognition of outstanding Irish engineering work. 

In awarding the project Engineers Ireland commented that, 

“The project is a true testament of the power of civil and environmental engineering to lift the human spirit. Cork Harbour has been transformed by the remediation of the East Tip and it is a landmark project for excellence in Irish engineering and its positive impact on society.”

The remediation of the East Tip has seen 650,000m³ of steelworks waste, a legacy of the Island’s industrial past, transformed into a magnificent public recreational park for the benefit of residents, workforce and visitors. In the space of eight years this highly controversial and unsightly legacy of Ireland's industrial past has been transformed into a public park through high quality engineering design, construction and project delivery.

This complex project required the application of innovative and bespoke environmental and engineering solutions from start through to completion. Amongst the significant milestones along the journey were:

• The granting of Ireland’s first hazardous waste landfill licence by the EPA achieved without a single third-party objection;
• The delivery of an innovative and complex engineered solution to the highest quality within stringent environmental constraints under challenging marine conditions;
• The implementation of a robust risk management framework driven by a comprehensive procurement strategy which necessitated a derogation from the use of the Public Works Form of Contract; and
• The delivery of the project on time and within budget amidst considerable contractual risks presented by the uniqueness of the site, characteristics of the waste material and location within Cork Harbour.

The project approach has been identified as a best practice model for remediation of waste sites. Members of the project team have been invited to share their expertise internationally, most recently by the European Commission on an Expert Mission to advise the Government of Romania on remediation of waste sites. 

RPS was appointed by Cork County Council in 2012 acting as client’s representative from project commencement through to completion. Our services included outline remediation design, environmental impact assessment, waste licencing, planning, detailed design, procurement and construction supervision.

Managing Director for our Republic of Ireland business, Gerry Carty led the congratulations,

“I want to congratulate the project team led by Brendan Brice in our Cork office for the quality of the project and their management from commencement to handover and those in the offices in Galway, Dublin, Bristol, Belfast, Edinburgh, Manchester and London Farringdon who contributed to the project. It is a most impressive project and new public amenity, together with a really pleasant walk in the lower harbour“.

Click here for further information on this remarkable project