HARDING PRIZE COMPETITION 2025 | BTS


Above, figure 1b: Process diagram


the environment and resources whilst maintaining the requirement for development. Opportunities are being realised into how to use


innovation to drive the sustainability of projects as reflected by the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), specifically Goal 9. Further to this, the way project sustainability is


measured is likely to change and the setpoint for standards, such as BREEAM, removing Carbon Offsetting as an option for Net Zero on projects. “BREEAM does not recognise carbon offsets, choosing


instead to focus on more meaningful reduction efforts aimed at carbon impacts associated with the construction and use of buildings,” says BRE Group. Works need to be commenced to understand how


to meet Net Zero targets by the proposed dates and enhance this to extrapolate into further changes, anticipated in future. Having said this, the recent update for the pending UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard proposes to include Offsetting as a voluntary option; therefore, it will be “possible to meet the Standard with or without Offsetting,” the update said. The limits and target will remain but will use varying terminology to adhere to the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard. In addition, there have been advancements and


innovations in the testing of wastewaters; the instrumentations used for testing for contaminants are becoming more refined and are able to detect contaminants to new, lower limits with the availability of the testing to be done in a site environment instead of taken to offsite laboratories. With these technological advancements, it allows site teams and their environmental fractions to conduct tests to unprecedented levels and understand problem contaminants, like hexavalent chromium and nitrites. With increased monitoring and accountability, further action is required to ensure that the criteria are met. Note


that the constraint for Align at the works, is for nitrites of up to 30 parts per billion (PPB); it is challenging to conduct tests to this level of accuracy. Water companies are becoming increasingly


pressurised through government fines and being in the public eye to tackle issues around water treatment and their untreated discharge rates. This is widely seen in various newspaper headlines in recent times. This, in turn, limits the quantities and risks that the water treatment plants will allow in their inlet waters, impacting the discharge volumes from large construction sites, and adding to the debate on the requirement for water treatment within the construction site itself. Furthermore, the water companies are proposing an increased cost to accommodate the required updates to their infrastructure to cope with current water treatment demands, reinforcing the argument that water recycling is a must for future sites.


2.2. Align JV Project The project on which the experiences outlined in this report are to be based is the C1 Align section of HS2 Phase 1. This consists of 21.6km of high-speed rail, including the twin bore 16km-long Chiltern Tunnels, 3.37km-long Colne Valley Viaduct and associated works. Further to this the South Portal site is to be


transformed into 130ha of Calcareous Grasslands, wetland and woodland pasture habitat from a quarry and farmland ensuring a significant ecological gain for the project and assisting in the carbon reduction. The South Portal site itself is situated within a


Category 1 Source Protection Zone (SPZ1) and has a discharge permit to the River Colne via the A412 highways drainage ditch. Due to these sensitive receptors the discharge constraints for the site have to adhere to both the Drinking Water Standards (DWS) and Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) of which the key determinants are shown in the Table.


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