CEEQUAL rating of Very Good for refurbishment work at RAF Lossiemouth

RAF Lossiemouth is a military airfield located in the town of Lossiemouth, Moray, approximately 5km north of Elgin in Scotland. The project is a full refurbishment of all major airside pavement surfaces at RAF Lossiemouth for a new Boeing P8 fleet, Typhoon Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) and normal operations.

Management

The project was driven by the Client, MoD, setting clear requirements to incorporate sustainability elements at every stage of the project. This was followed up by a thorough Sustainability Appraisal, undertaken by Mott MacDonald, which helped to ensure sustainable development considerations and policy requirements are integrated into all plans, programmes, and projects that have the potential to affect the environment, society, or the economy.

Mitigation measures and enhancements identified in the Sustainability Appraisal were followed through during the construction phase using a thorough and robust Construction Environmental Management Plan, implemented by VolkerFitzpatrick. This clear mechanism for managing sustainability issues on the project lead to a score of 73% for this section.

Resilience

For a large area of hardstanding, such as a runway as featured for this scheme, resilience was to play a vital role. From early on in the Scheme timeline, drainage assessments were undertaken and a Climate Impacts Risk Assessment Methodology was followed to understand and allow for climate resilience measures to be designed in. Particular attention was paid to the potential flood risk due to the location of the site in Scotland.

Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SuDS) have been incorporated into the design where technically possible. The Scheme included an innovative aircraft wash re-use system to ease stress on the existing water environment. Additionally, the project inherently improves the resilience of the wider RAF network as it provides the MoD with a functional runway operating to the relevant design standards. These measures led to 83% being scored for this section.

Pollution

The design incorporated oil interceptors between the drainage design system and the Covesea Burn which helped to prevent contaminated runoff from the runway entering the environment. The Construction Environmental Management Plan implemented by VolkerFitzpatrick helped to minimise and mitigated any pollution impacts arising during the construction phase. These measures lead to a score of 73% on this Section.

The project was able to re-use:

• 91% of the topsoil excavated

• 41% of the concrete

• 100% of the asphalt

• 100% of the sand

This gave an overall re-use on site of 72% of the materials.

The key driver and benefit of CEEQUAL was that it allowed the project to look at opportunities beyond obvious benefits such as Biodiversity Net Gain or social benefits and to look at specific resource related elements such as the aircraft wash re-use system and the re-using and recycling of materials.

CEEQUAL also encouraged clearer communication and more obvious attempts to share best practice and apply lessons learnt to other RAF Schemes facing similar issues of isolated sites and site security issues.

Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SuDS) have been incorporated into the design where technically possible. Additionally, the Scheme included an innovative aircraft wash re-use system to ease stress on the existing water environment.

Speaking on the success of the project, Russ Liddington, DIO’s project manager for the resurfacing works, shared, “The completion of the runway works months ahead of schedule is a testament to the hard work and collaborative attitude of everyone involved in the project, whether from DIO, VolkerFitzpatrick, RAF Lossiemouth or one of the sub-contractors. The runway resurfacing and associated works, such as installing new drainage and airfield lighting, will see the runway life extended by up to 25 years.”