PRESIDENT’S COLUMN New Steel
8 NSC
Feb 20
New Steel Construction’s (NSC) fourth Technical
Digest, which brings together a year’s worth of
technical guidance, is now available for download at:
www.steelconstruction.info
Helping to keep engineers and architects up-to-date
with the latest steel construction related guidance,
NSC’s Digest compiles all the magazine’s Technical
Articles and Advisory Desk Notes from 2019, which can
be downloaded as a pdf or viewed online.
Advisory Desk Notes reflect recent developments in
technical standards or new knowledge that designers
need to be made aware of. Some of them arise because
a question is being frequently asked of the steel sector’s
technical advisers. They have always been recognised
as essential reading for all involved in the design of
A new steel-framed waste-to-energy facility, which will
help the nation reduce its reliance on landfill sites for
refuse disposal, is under construction in Cheshire.
The Hooton Bio Power Resource Recovery Centre
is being built by Danish-based Burmeister & Wain
Scandinavian Contractor (BWSC), with Caunton
Engineering erecting the steelwork for the main
structures, which consist of a boiler house, turbine hall,
and a fuel unloading and handling building.
“It is a very tight site and the structures are all
adjacent to each other on a relatively small footprint,”
Caunton Engineering Site Manager Robert Aitman said.
“Site and erection logistics are playing a key role on this
job as we have to work around the other trades, most
notably the equipment installers.”
During the steel erection process Caunton is leaving
large openings in the roofs and elevations to allow
BWSC’s sub-contractors to install the plant’s large boiler
and processing equipment.
Once the majority of this equipment has been
installed, Caunton will infill the remaining steelwork
areas, with the entire steel package due for completion
in May.
The project is said to be the first non-subsidised
merchant gasification plant in the UK, as well as being
the first time the UK market will realise a gasification
centre of this size, based on fluidised bed technology
provided by Japan’s Kobelco.
The Hooton facility will gasify some 240,000t of
waste per year, generating in excess of 200 GWh of
electricity annually. It is expected to be operational by
the end of 2021.
News
There’s little doubt that climate change and
sustainability are gaining momentum in our domestic
lives as well as in industry. Greta Thurnberg argues that
humanity is facing an existence crisis and that climate
change is fast becoming the number one issue for the
world. Perhaps the scale of the fires in Australia has
shown us this in some way
This shift in emphasis towards carbon reduction
has put it in the spotlight for us all. As it’s not going
away anytime soon, we’ll also be under this spotlight.
We may all have to change the way we live and work
to reduce future carbon emissions otherwise extreme
climate events will become more frequent and
damaging.
The construction industry has a major part to play in
this drive to net-zero carbon. We need to do more with
less; maximise the efficient use of resources and move
towards a truly circular economy. This is the Module
D strategy, and the Paris Agreement brings carbon
reduction into focus.
Steel is well-placed to play a crucial role in reducing
the environmental impact of construction, and this
shift in emphasis towards a reduction in carbon
emissions is the major factor, and one most likely to
have the best impact.
This characteristic that steel can be recycled or
reused endlessly without detriment to its properties
gives steel a high value at all stages of its life cycle. So
it comes as no shock to find out that steel recycling
is highly developed and highly efficient and has
been in place for decades. Current recovery rates
from demolition sites in the UK are 99% for structural
steelwork and 96% on average for all steel construction
products.
As you know, Steel is manufactured by two
production routes, Basic Oxygen Steel (BOS) and
Electric Arc Furnace (EAF), which together comprise a
single global system of supply to meet world demand.
Both production routes include significant recycled
content.
Energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions
from European steelmaking have already been
reduced by 50% and 60% respectively over the past
40 years. The by-products from steelmaking, which
include sludges, slags and dust are beneficially used
by the industry in a range of products including
roadstone, lightweight aggregates and as cementitious
material used as a substitute for Portland cement.
European steel manufacturers are also leading the
way in developing breakthrough technologies that will
support ‘science-based targets’ and enable a global
transition to a low-carbon economy.
As well as minimising the emissions associated
with its products, the steel construction sector
is also supporting designers and architects by
providing guidance on how to get the most
out of those products. The steel sector website
steelconstruction.info, for example, contains a wealth of
guidance on efficient design and construction. I guess
we have always strived for that, but such efficient use
of resources within our built environment is perhaps
now more important than ever.
Tim Outteridge
BCSA President and Jamestown Manufacturing
Construction
Technical Digest now
available online
Monkey Island bridge installed over M4
Cleveland Bridge has installed an 82.4m-long, 400t steel
bridge at Monkey Island as part of a major upgrade of
the M4 motorway between junctions 3 and 12.
Working on behalf of Highways England, the job was
carried out by main contractor, Balfour Beatty/Vinci
Joint Venture (BBVJV).
The bridge forms part of a scheme that will
eventually see a total of 11 bridges replaced along the
M4 in Berkshire, as the highway is upgraded to a smart
motorway.
Designed by Arcadis/Jacobs and fabricated by
Cleveland Bridge, the bridge was delivered to site from
Darlington in nine braced pairs, before being assembled
and installed during a 54-hour road closure.
The name Monkey Island derives from Monks
Eyot, meaning Monks' Island, after a monastery that
existed nearby from 1197 until the dissolution of the
monasteries in the 1530s.
Steel provides
Cheshire with new
power plant
constructional
steelwork.
The longer
Technical Articles cover
more detailed insights into what designers
need to know, often the result of legislative changes or
changes to codes and standards.
Sometimes it is simply felt that it would be helpful if
a lot of relatively minor changes, perhaps made over a
period of time, were brought together in one place, so a
technical update is needed.
Some of the topics covered in last year’s Technical
Articles include stability and second order effects on
steel structures; design of crane girders; fatigue of
bracing in buildings; and connection design in trusses.
/Construction
/Construction#Steel_erection
/Sustainability
/Steel_and_the_circular_economy
/Recycling_and_reuse#Recycling
/Recycling_and_reuse#Reuse
/Steel_construction_products
/Steel_construction_products
/Steel_manufacture
/The_Steel_Construction_Information_System
/Design
/Construction
/Multi-girder_composite_bridges
/Design_for_steel_bridge_construction#Fabricating_the_steelwork
/Design_for_steel_bridge_construction#Transportation
/Multi-girder_composite_bridges#Bracing
/www.steelconstruction.info
/Construction
/Advisory_Desk_Notes
/Design
/Design_codes_and_standards
/Concept_design#Structural_options_for_stability
/Fatigue_design_of_bridges#The_mechanism_of_fatigue
/Trusses
/www.steelconstruction.info