Breaking new ground

Celtic, a key UK provider of this service, takes a unique and, indeed, award winning approach to remediation. Celtic, formed in 1992 and last year taken over by EnGlobe, is one of only a few companies to offer its range of on-site remediation technologies. Celtic’s systems are designed on a project-by-project basis so, as described by Operations Director Jon Freeman, “one thing that separates Celtic from our competitors is that we offer a full design and build package to suit customers’ requirements. We design what is needed from a remediation angle, and then provide and implement it on site. We can provide a warrantied site, with a full report at the end of the process to demonstrate that we have met all the requirements.” Celtic’s solutions include the EvoCem soil stabilisation system, which can make the remediation process quicker, as well as more financially efficient, than competing approaches.{mosimage}

Despite the relative newness and rarity of Celtic’s approach in the UK, Jon Freeman is also quick to note that the system has been extensively proven in the USA, as well as on several of the company’s previous UK projects, including the former Rover plant site at Longbridge, Birmingham and First Street in Manchester. Celtic seeks to use on-site remediation processes together with risk-based project closure procedures to ensure minimal adverse environmental impact and deliver an improved environment for developers, local authorities and communities alike.

The First Street Development has presented Celtic with a number of environmental challenges. The completed £750M development, on which Celtic is the principal contractor for ground remediation and enabling works, will bring new shops, offices, homes and a children’s play area, alongside a vast centrepiece, tree-lined pedestrian boulevard, stretching from Hulme to the site of the former Hacienda night club and fronted by cafés, high-end retail and leisure destinations.{mosimage}
This is all taking place on the site of a former gas works and the disused BT building. In relation to this project, Jon continues: “Because we work on projects from the design stage we can meet requirements beyond simple soil standards. In Manchester, for example, the council had particular concerns about disruption to local residents and businesses because of the city centre location. Through intense consultation at the planning stage, by keeping all the remediation work on-site and by regularly monitoring the ongoing work we were able to keep all that to a minimum while achieving the goals set for us in terms of the remediation work too.”

The First Street site will also feature Manchester’s first green wall on the side of the BT building, and the green motif is clearly one that developer partners Ask Developments wish to push. Celtic’s role in this has been to take soil, in some cases heavily polluted due to the site’s former use, clean it in-situ using its advanced mobile remediation technology, and return most of it to form the bedrock of the new neighbourhood. The company’s methods also comply with all the latest waste acceptance criteria and pre-treatment requirements associated with the landfill directive, if material needs to be exported from site as part of the wider development scheme.

Over the last 17 years Celtic has worked across a broad range of industries including nuclear, oil and gas, chemical, property and utilities but now, despite the economic downturn, is an exciting period for the company. Celtic has recently won a prestigious industry award; the 2008 Brownfield Briefing Remediation Innovation Award (www.brownfieldawards.com) for most sustainable remediation project and the company can be found in-situ, providing unique remediation solutions on brownfield sites across the UK. From its regional offices in London, Cardiff, Birmingham and the Northwest Celtic has worked on over 1500 Brownfield projects in the UK providing assignable warranties.

If the future of development is ‘sustainability’ then Celtic’s approach to on-site treatment, minimising off-site remediation and landfill tax, will play a key part; beginning sustainable developments from the ground up and bringing urban Brownfield sites back into useful service.

For further information contact Jonathan Freeman, Operations Director jon.freeman@celtic-ltd.com