The Customer
We were approached by Construction group Galliford Try to design and provide dual-purpose cabins at their client’s SUEZ, Knowsley Rail Transfer Loading Station.
The Transfer Station is part of an operation handling up to half a million tonnes a year of residual (currently non-recyclable) waste collected from homes in Merseyside and Halton.
Waste that has been collected by local councils is transported to the site by larger road vehicles from existing waste transfer stations and by a limited number of refuse collection vehicles.
These vehicles deliver their waste to the Rail Transfer Loading Station where it is transferred into sealed shipping containers inside the building for onward transportation by rail to an energy-from-waste facility at Wilton on Teesside.
The Challenge
Our container conversion team`s remit was to provide a control cabin for crane operations and meeting rooms with large viewing panels of specialised fire retardant glass. There was also a requirement to meet the compulsory specifications for two-hour fire-rated personnel refuges.
Project Manager Les Newick said, “This was an extremely challenging brief. The rail head has been modified as a waste compaction site where residual waste is compressed into containers and then loaded onto trains.
“The operation is scheduled to handle 90 HGVs delivering into the facility and two trains transporting waste out per day.”
Critical to the project was the two-hour integrity of the external fire cladding, large glass windows with 30-minute fire protection rating and two-hour rated internal fire shutters over the windows designed to shut automatically in the event of a fire alarm.
The S Jones Solution
Working from Galliford Try’s initial concept drawings and the fire protection specifications, the S Jones conversions team designed and manufactured the three bespoke enclosures.
As a result, once the compacted waste leaves the Knowsley rail head, it is now transported to the Teesside facility where it is thermally treated under controlled conditions to generate electricity and heat. This offers a far more environmentally-friendly and cost-effective way of disposing of Merseyside and Halton’s waste than landfill.
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What Galliford Try Had To Say
Galliford Try’s project manager Ken 0’Hare said: “S Jones Containers got to grips with the brief immediately and understood the safety critical nature of the commission.
“The risk of fire in this kind of installation is something that can be mitigated but never eradicated and we need to ensure first and foremost that staff are protected.
“S Jones Containers rose to the occasion and delivered a technically challenging solution on time and on budget. We have already approved S Jones Containers to work on our next project,” he said.
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