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One North East, WSP and Taylor Woodrow: Newburn Riverside Land Reclamation, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Newburn Riverside, a major new development for the North East, is one of the largest brownfield reclamation projects in the UK. Substantial additional value and a highly sustainable solution was achieved through the use of innovative re-use and recycling techniques and leading edge partnering arrangements (ECC option C).

Geotechnical considerations led to a 4M m3 earthworks operation, of which 0.6M m3 was contaminated. Innovative solutions to treat and process graphite wastes, residuals of coal stocking activities from Stella North power station, and unregistered asbestos tips, glassworks ash, slag, burnt shales and other waste materials. Achieving a 95% recovery rate for waste soils suitable for reuse within the works removed the need for an on-site repository or adopting a typical "dig'n'dump" approach for the bulk of the works.

The project also involved the installation of 1.65km of highways, installation and diversion of services, and the landscaping of 25ha of public open space building on and enhancing the local character and ecology appropriate for a high profile commercial and light industrial development site.

Newburn Riverside has also received the 2003 ICE North Robert Stephenson Award for Innovation, 2003 ICE Edmund Hambly Medal for creative and sustainable designs in an engineering project, and has been shortlisted for this year's BCIA Awards (Civil Engineering Category) and Prime Ministers Award for Better Public Building.