CEEQUAL rating of Very Good for new pump station in Lillestrøm, Norway
Overview
The project involved the construction of a new pumping station in the municipality of Lillestrøm, to replace the existing pumping station. The project has great social significance in terms of reducing pollution and maintaining the waste management from approximately 7,000 people equivalent to the municipality of Lillestrøm. The work carried out earned a CEEQUAL (now known as BREEAM Infrastructure) rating of Very Good.
About
Lillestrøm Kommune is Norway's ninth largest municipality and has over 92,324 inhabitants.
Background
The intervention required part of the pre-existing pumping station to be restored. In its previous state, it was inadequate and unable to withstand the exceptional rain and flooding events in the municipal areas.
Challenges
The project goals were ambitious and included:
Significantly improvement of the pollution situation in the recipient (Bølerbekken) of the pump station.
Improvement of the resilience of pump station in case of flooding
Minimising of the impact of excavation work, by controlled drilling of the new pump line with a total length of approx. 1,010 m.
Reuse of the existing facilities of the pumping station to avoid supplementary impacts on the environment.
Reduction of the emissions from the construction works, by a fossil-free project
Reuse of a large part of excavated masses on site
Reduction of construction waste to be sent to landfills with a minimum sorting rate of 95%
Solutions
Management
A common strategy for the sustainability, good planning of the work and engagement in the achievement of the goals, permitted to achieve a score close 95% for the Management category rating.
Resilience
Significant improvement of the resilience of pump station in case of flooding, with redundant sizing of the capacity in relation to the expected quantity of water in the event of flooding. The project achieved a score close 91% for the Resilience category rating.
Communities and stakeholders
The consultation of interested parties and attention to the needs of the community have satisfied the stakeholders who have seen their requests accepted regarding the minimisation of the impact of construction traffic on the nearby school community, reduction of the impact of excavations on agricultural properties adjacent to the construction site and no permanent environmental impact on the nature surrounding the pumping station. The score achieved in this category is 71%
Resources
The project team elaborated a strategy to improve the efficiency of resources and to reduce the emissions. The result of this decisions has been scored close 62%.
The strategy included use of energy from renewables source, reduction of distance of most part of transports in a radius of 15 km from the construction site, use of led technology and reuse of masses on site.
The targets for reduction of carbon emission have been achieved and exceeded, also. The project saved 98 ton of Co2 on a total of 665 ton of Co2 expected the equivalent of 323400 kilometres with a diesel car or 98 flights from Frankfurt to New York.
The good engagement of the workforce, together with information and training, permitted to divert from the landfills, the 99,9% of the waste produced in the project.
Pollution
A significant improvement of the pollution situation in the recipient (Bølerbekken) of the pump station has been achieved and this has been scored close 83% in the Pollution category rating.
Benefits
All measurable project goals were achieved, and some have been exceeded. We successfully minimised the impact on areas with high ecological value and achieved a climate gas reduction of more than 10% in the construction phase.
Key success metrics:
Embodied carbon emissions: 13% reduction achieved
Operational renewable energy potential: 80% of total energy use
Re-used material: 40% of total material used
Waste diverted from landfill: 99.9% of total waste
The most important financial advantage that the project obtained using CEEQUAL was the consequence of the effort made in the reuse of excavated materials which resulted in a 30% reduction in material purchases due to the reuse of materials, a 15% reduction in costs. for the transport of these materials and a reduction in social costs of almost 50,000 -NOK, thanks to the reduction of CO2 emissions. The project closed with a profit margin of more than 5%.
Using CEEQUAL it was possible to document and make tangible the efforts undertaken to carry out the project in a more sustainable way. The project team, which includes the client, the company, the workforce, and the designers, felt involved in achieving the social and environmental objectives. Although small, the project demonstrated that if there is commitment, we can be part of the sustainable transition and CEEQUAL was the tool to demonstrate this commitment.
A spokesperson shared, “We are satisfied and proud of the results obtained with the CEEQUAL Construction Award certification of the “Pumpestasjon PA240”, which has given us the opportunity to document our commitment to make the civil infrastructure construction sector more sustainable. Further, we are very pleased to show that this is possible and useful, even for small projects.”
