Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, alongside Scottish Canals, yesterday welcomed Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh to the site of its completed Helix Canal project in Grangemouth.
Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh visited the canal to mark the official naming of the development, the Queen Elizabeth II Canal, which has seen over 2.5 million visitors since it was opened in April 2014.
In 2012, Balfour Beatty was charged with the £13 million design and construction work for the extension of the Helix canal, to mitigate tidal constraints on boats entering from the River Carron. Construction of the 900 metre sheet piled extension included the creation of an inland and tidal sea lock, the erection of two static bridges and the piled foundations necessary to support the world-renowned Kelpie structures.
Hector Macaulay, Balfour Beatty’s Regional Managing Director for Scotland, said: “It was an honour to welcome Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness to the official naming ceremony of the Helix Canal today.
“During the design and construction phase, our highly skilled team provided numerous innovative engineering solutions including the build of a new tidal sea lock allowing for improved access to the Central Scotland Canal network, and the erection of a static bridge under the M9 motorway. These solutions enabled the successful delivery of what has become one of Scotland’s most treasured attractions.”
ENDS
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Notes to editors:
- Balfour Beatty (www.balfourbeatty.com) is a leading international infrastructure group. With 30,000 employees, we provide innovative and efficient infrastructure that underpins our daily lives, supports communities and enables economic growth. We finance, develop, build and maintain complex infrastructure such as transportation, power and utility systems, social and commercial buildings.
- Our main geographies are the UK, US and South East Asia. Over the last 100 years we have created iconic buildings and infrastructure all over the world including the London Olympics’ Aquatic Centre, Hong Kong’s first Zero Carbon building, the National Museum of the Marine Corps in the US and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
- Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, has been operating in Scotland for over a century. Today, the company employs 2,000 people across Scotland and works with a supply chain that includes a substantial proportion of local businesses.
- The company’s construction business recently completed the award winning Holyrood Student Accommodation development, providing 1,180 student beds within the World Heritage Site of Holyrood in the City of Edinburgh and the construction of a Typhoon Propulsion Service Facility to support the rebuild and supply of the EJ200 engines used by 3 Typhoon Squadron.
- Significant projects in the Company’s current portfolio include the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route which will improve the transport network in Aberdeen and across the north east of Scotland, the £14m Almondbank Flood Defence Scheme to deliver a series of flood defences along the River Almond and construct a temporary flood storage unit and the £30m Kennedy Street Student Accommodation project in Glasgow which will feature 536 bedrooms, split over two blocks around a stunning central courtyard.
- Iconic projects of the past include the refurbishment of Forth Bridge which was nominated for UNESCO World Heritage Status and carries the East Coast Mainline over the Firth of Forth, the Fife General Hospital and Maternity Services provision which centralises specialist in-patient, acute and emergency services on one site and the restoration and extension of Lewis Castle and Museum Nan Eilean to provide a new museum, archive and hospitality facility on the Isle of Lewis.
