Update on progress at the end of 2021

The McLaughlin & Harvey construction contract that is delivering the £91.9M Hawick Flood Protection Scheme is now at its mid-way point.  December 2021 is month 19 of the 40-month construction programme. 

The Project Team are currently undertaking a full mid-term review of work to date with a view to absorbing all lessons learned, both good and bad, into a revised approach to delivering the second half of the construction programme.

During a report to Hawick Community Council on Monday night, Conor Price, Project Director, highlighted some of the key achievements of the project to date including the response to the recent flood event of 28 October 2021.  The ongoing mid-term review was highlighted, and it was confirmed that the project team will present the outcome of the lessons learned, and a revised construction programme, for 2022 and 2023, to the town in early February 2022.

The following key construction achievements are noted at this mid-term point:

· Around 1,000m of new flood defence wall are completed (relative to a total requirement of 6,200m of new flood walls and embankments);

· Around 1,250m of new flood defence wall are essentially complete;

· Around 700m of new flood defence wall are substantially under construction;

· The project managed to re-structure its programme for 2021 to ensure the new flood walls were accelerated in some key areas of the town – e.g. Mansfield Road and Duke Street;

· The partially constructed flood defences, combined with the Scheme’s demountable defences, was capable of providing substantial protection against the high-river / flood event of 28 October 2021;

· The three new footbridges have been delivered to Hawick and two of them have been successfully lifted into place;

· The project has taken control of, and successfully demolished a section of the Bridgehouse Guesthouse to secure that area of riverbank at the Sandbed;

· The project’s approach to traffic management by using the High Street and Princes Street has worked to ensure the town can continue to function within the context of the massive construction works that is required; and

· The project team ensured that Commercial Road was re-opened for Christmas.

The following key construction challenges are noted at this mid-term point:

· The single largest section of work, at Commercial Road, was not completed in 2021 as intended – McLaughlin & Harvey will now require to close Commercial Road again next summer to complete the work in this location by late 2022;

· The completion of the new Victoria Footbridge is behind programme.  This footbridge will not now open until summer 2022.  This footbridge was intended to be opened temporarily for Christmas 2021, however the project team must now confirm that this will not happen.  There are simply too many construction works remaining to allow this to happen;

· The completion of the new Mansfield Road Footbridge is behind programme.  This footbridge will not now open until summer 2022;

· The construction of the new Lawson Footbridge piers did not get completed, and therefore this work will now be completed during summer 2022 – the new footbridge is currently sitting in Hawick waiting to be lifted into place; and

· Final landscaping and finishing works have not yet been 100% completed for any work section with the result that there remains a construction footprint across large areas of the town.

The Scheme is replacing the Victoria Footbridge with a new footbridge at the same crossing point.  This created greater need for opening the new footbridge, however it also results in greater engineering difficulties replacing the structure.  – for example, this footbridge carries key regional power and telecommunication services that cannot have service interruption through its sub-structure. With both the Lawson and Mansfield Road footbridges, the new footbridge is upstream of the existing and therefore it is possible to maintain a crossing at all times, and the same logistical challenges do not exist. 

Conor Price, Project Director for the Scheme, said: “The project team understand the importance of opening the new Victoria Footbridge as quickly as possible to minimise the loss of this key crossing point in the town.  It is with huge disappointment that we have to concede that reopening this footbridge is not possible before Christmas, and furthermore that it will be summer 2022 before this crossing is reopened.”

 “This Scheme is the biggest flood protection scheme ever advanced in Scotland.  It is a massive civil engineering project that stretches for 6km through the heart of Hawick – a historic market town.  The past 20 months have been extraordinarily difficult for the project team, however we have found a way to remain on budget and on target to complete the work by autumn 2023.  We recognise that everything has not gone according to plan over that time however, we believe we have done our best to deliver flood protection to Hawick as quickly as possible.”