April 2009
Halcrow celebrated a triple project win at this year's Waterways Renaissance Awards run by The Waterways Trust and British Urban Regeneration Association (BURA). Now in their seventh year, the awards recognise best practice in sustainable waterway regeneration and development throughout the UK.
Held at the Arena and Convention Centre on Liverpool's waterfront, the awards recognised Halcrow's commitment and outstanding work in regeneration. The nominations were judged by an independent assessment panel, comprising waterway, conservation and regeneration experts and chaired by Sir Peter Soulsby MP.
Halcrow was thrilled with the success of the development of the historic Foxton Locks and Inclined Plane site in Leicestershire. The project not only won in the historic category and was commended in the Design and Construction category, but was presented with the prestigious Outstanding Achievement Award - the highlight of the evening.
The British Waterways led project involved five years' development of a 20 acre historic site in South Leicestershire. Halcrow has been providing specialist support to British Waterways in developing designs that are appropriate and in keeping with the unique historic nature of the site.
Roger Hanbury, chief executive of The Waterways Trust, said: "The restoration of Foxton Locks and Inclined Plane is an excellent example of how the modern renaissance of our waterways continues to transform our environment. This project is part of an imaginative programme to transform this unique and previously partly derelict site into a visitor attraction of national importance, balancing the challenging demands of heritage, engineering, and environment. The result is just stunning and incorporates many clever and innovative solutions. It is a fantastic project, brilliantly executed by a great team".
Mark Seward, Halcrow's framework manager for British Waterways said: "We were absolutely thrilled to win at the Waterway Renaissance Awards. We have worked very closely with British Waterways over the past few years and it is tremendously satisfying to be rewarded and recognised as waterway regeneration specialists at this prestigious event.
We hope that these awards will help to further raise the profile of Foxton nationally and help to strengthen our long term working relationship with British Waterways."
Halcrow also celebrated winning the Innovation Achievement Award for their work, as part of a team, on the Washlands Flood Storage Area Improvement Scheme in Dagenham.
The project involved innovative techniques such as deep dry cement mixing beneath the embankments to improve the geotechnical characteristics of the peat material. Materials gained from off-site works were used to improve the stability of the embankments, increasing the sustainability of the project and on-and-off-stream ponds, wetland areas, wet meadows, dry meadows and acid grasslands were created to protect key species during the works. Habitats were also restored upon completion.
Halcrow also took away the Flood Defence Award for its work on the Boscastle Valency Flood Defence Scheme. The project aims to reduce the frequency and consequences of flooding from the River Valency and thereby make Boscastle a safer place. The flood defence system works with the natural processes of the river and integrates with the sustainable regeneration of the village. The result has been the creation of a flood risk management scheme providing a 1 in 75 year standard of defence.
Halcrow's regional director for water, Europe, Roland Grzybek said: "It was amazing that an award category was created for the Boscastle project (designed by Halcrow for the Environment Agency), it was suitable for awards in some shape or form in some of the other categories, for instance leisure and tourism but it was such a fantastic project in it's own right. Not only did it win a special award but it's actually inspired the Renaissance Awards to create a new award for Flood Risk Management which can only be good news for Halcrow, especially in this context.
Halcrow has exceeded all expectations at these awards and has shown the variety of skills that we have. It has been an amazing night for all concerned and all staff working on these projects should be congratulated."