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BIW SUPPORTS COAL AUTHORITY’S MINEWATER PROJECTS Water de-contamination programme deploys BIW NEC contract administration 03 June 2009UK-based Software-as-a-Service technology provider BIW Technologies (BIW) is providing its project control platform to support the Coal Authority’s programme to de-contaminate water arising from former UK coal mines. To date the Authority has deployed the BIW system on 59 minewater projects, including the recently completed £8m Dawdon scheme in County Durham. On all these projects, the BIW Contract Administration module is used to manage professional team processes within the NEC2 contract framework. The UK minewater programmeAs UK coal production has scaled back in recent years, underground water pumping has also reduced or ceased leaving a legacy of actual or future pollution due to metal rich minewaters entering rivers, streams or groundwater. The Coal Authority established a national programme of works to prevent this minewater entering water courses untreated and so is constructing schemes to remove contaminating materials from the mine discharges before water is allowed to flow into river systems. So far the programme has cleaned up over 300km of water courses. The Coal Authority is working with project managers from several partner companies including Atkins, Mott MacDonald, Interserve Project services Ltd and JN Bentley. The Authority undertook a pilot project with the BIW system in March 2007 at the Vinovium mine, near Spennymoor in County Durham. This successful trial led to the system being adopted to manage information and support key contract processes across the whole minewater programme, including the biggest scheme to date at Dawdon. DawdonMinewater from the former Dawdon colliery contaminated with high levels of iron and chlorides threatened to pollute the East Durham aquifer and the adjacent coastline. As the aquifer currently provides 36 million litres/day of drinking water to Sunderland and surrounding communities, a complex minewater treatment scheme was designed to safeguard water supplies. It involved construction of: - twin submersible mine pumps and rising mains (800m)
- twin directionally drilled short sea outfalls
- a treatment building housing the active treatment process, and support accommodation
The Dawdon project was split into two contracts: Contract 1 went live on BIW in April 2007 and covered the borehole and pipeline/pumping elements of the project; Contract 2, for the treatment building and active plant, went live in August 2007. Both contracts were managed using the NEC2 functionality within BIW, supporting close collaboration between the Authority and its partners on the project: Atkins, Mott MacDonald, Interserve, J N Bentley and IWS. Construction of the scheme, valued at just over £8m, started in July 2007, with final completion – within budget – due in June 2009. Towards NEC3 adoptionKeith Parker, the Coal Authority’s head of Minewater Build & Operations, says: "We were attracted to the BIW system for its combination of comprehensive document management and contract administration features, as we were using the NEC2 Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) across our minewater programme. We are now halfway through a four-year partnership with BIW and plan to upgrade to the latest release, v5.5, of the platform ahead of adoption of the NEC3 contract for future projects later this year."
BIW chief executive Colin Smith says: "The Coal Authority’s use of BIW is a powerful demonstration of our platform’s value in managing a complex, geographically dispersed, multi-project programme of engineering projects. We have also enjoyed a very productive partnership with the Coal Authority team, helping ensure that the BIW Contract Administration module can be exactly configured to their needs as they roll-out new projects procured using the NEC3 form of contract."
- ends - More information from: Notes to editorsAbout the Coal AuthorityThe Coal Authority (www.coal.gov.uk) was established by Parliament in 1994 to undertake specific statutory responsibilities associated with: - licensing coal mining operations in Britain
- handling subsidence damage claims which are not the responsibility of licensed coalmine operators
- dealing with property and historic liability issues, such as treatment of minewater discharges
- providing public access to information on past and present coal mining operations
- providing a 24 hour call-out service for reported surface hazards
About BIW Technologies- Project collaboration services from BIW Technologies (www.biwtech.com) were first employed in 1999 on UK construction projects for major retailer Sainsbury’s. BIW believes it is the European leader in web-based collaboration systems for the construction and property industry, measured by numbers of users, usage and volume of data.
- The BIW platform is a sophisticated web-based supply chain integration technology, designed specifically for construction projects or programmes. Each client is provided with a unique, project or programme-specific website created around a knowledge database. With this, data can be made available securely to every team member – from the earliest concepts, through detailed design, buildability studies, pre-fabrication, construction, maintenance, operation and improvement to the eventual demolition or dismantling of the facility.
- BIW customers include leading UK companies such as Bovis Lend Lease, Sainsbury’s, Mace, Crest Nicholson, Canary Wharf, The Resort Group, The Wellcome Trust and The Coal Authority.
- BIW and BIW Contract Administration are trademarks or registered trademarks of BIW Technologies Ltd.
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