West Bromwich Energy Recovery Facility

Project Description

The Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) in West Bromwich has the capability to process more than 395,000 tonnes of post-recycled residual waste. The scheme includes fifteen structures including the waste bunker, boiler hall, turbine hall, tipping hall and associated buildings.

The ERF will use state-of-the-art steam generation and combustion technologies from Babcock & Wilcox Renewable to generate electricity for up to 95,000 homes.

Hambleton Steel completed the construction and steelwork installation of all the supporting structures from the steam turbine, waste bunker to the electrical /administration and main boiler hall erection. This was inclusive of metal decking, open grid flooring, handrailing, stairs, intumescent paint and site welding to pre installed embedment plates in the concrete walls.

Challenges l Solutions

The site was right next door to the M5, a very busy motorway, in addition to site having restricted space. The structure was a very tall and prominent at 50m in height and this caused some challenges with crane positioning. Much coordination and communication was needed to delivering steel to site and the build itself.

Hambleton Steel were required to build the steel frame around a boiler structure, delivered by another contractor on site. We needed to ensure we worked in coordination, ensuring we could deliver on time. Many changes were required throughout the construction phase and our team needed to be ready to review changes finding optimal solutions. Working with the client for a couple of years, it was important to us to invest time to understand the importance of delivery to the client, meeting tight time changes made along the way effectively.

With the various environmental requirements and fire risks for this type of build, Hambleton Steel’s team provided an intumescent paint solution for each steel member, depending on the area it was installed. Total area covered was over 15,000m2.