TECHNICAL | DRILL & BLAST - COIRE GLAS PROJECT
Above: Zublin setting up for drilling at the fault zone PHOTO CREDIT: TOM ROBINSON
Stantec-Cowi busy until the Main Works commence. Joe took over again for a recap of the project in
numbers, before drawing attention to some of the project’s achievements. Tackling what was initially one of the biggest hurdles, a UK ‘hard rock skills gap’, ended up being one of the main successes, with experienced drillers, newly qualified shotfirers, and engineering geologists upskilled for face mapping and core logging, all now available for future works. The project’s reporting provides a powerful insight
into the progress data, to inform on works planning and mitigate the main sources of delays. The rate of tunnelling increased steadily over the course of the project, another healthy sign for the upcoming works. Another success was the relationship with the
local Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), whose commitment to support the project was invaluable. Regular contact, including desktop exercises, underground inductions, and evacuation drills, ensured the SFRS knew what works were happening on site, and what resources were available in the event of an incident. There were also significant technical innovations, not
Above both: Photo of exposed geology and corresponding geologist’s sketch at Advance 391 PHOTO CREDIT: TOM TAPLIN
With the last of a suite of overcoring tests completed
in early December, in barely four months one of the most comprehensive underground GI campaigns of its kind in recent years was concluded. That said, it was another couple of months before the real deliverable, a 5,500 page Factual Report, was completed, a collation of every relevant record of the GI works, which should keep
18 | February 2026
least of which was the use of tunnelling for GI itself. The British Geological Survey (BGS) has been involved in the project from early on, and they’ve received further valuable insight into an area of significant geological interest. On the construction side, the methodologies that have been developed during the course of the works, such as smooth blasting, could have a huge saving in time, cost and wastage during the Main Works. The Underground GI also included some significant ‘firsts’ in hard rock techniques. Successfully managing the ground risk was the
most important safety consideration for the works, but the standard of more conventional H&S practice on site is also deserving of mention. The project has
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