Urbaser Balfour Beatty favoured for Gloucs deal
15 December 2011
Spanish waste management company Urbaser and its partner civil engineers Balfour Beatty have been named as the preferred bidder for the £500 million Gloucester residual waste project.
In a meeting yesterday (December 14) Gloucestershire county council named the partnership as the frontrunner for the 25-year contract ahead of Complete Circle, a consortium of Shanks, John Laing and Keppel Seghers.
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- The proposed Urbaser Balfour Beatty energy-from-waste incinerator at Javelin Park
The Gloucestershire residual waste project was one of seven that had its PFI funding withdrawn in October 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story) as part of Defra’s spending review which stated the projects were no longer needed to meet EU landfill diversion targets.
Commenting on UBB’s success, councillor Stan Waddington, cabinet member for waste, said: “Both bidders submitted excellent tenders but it was clear that Urbaser Balfour Beatty bid came through as providing the better solution to meet Gloucestershire’s needs.”
“Gloucestershire county council is committed to diverting waste away from landfill and today is a significant step in the right direction,” he added.
Urbaser
Under the proposed contract, Urbaser Balfour Beatty (UBB) is planning to build an energy-from-waste (EfW) incinerator using moving grate technology at Javelin Park in Gloucester. The plant will be capable of processing 190,000 tonnes of waste every year. If planning permission is granted, construction will start in 2013.
During the construction of the facility around 300 jobs will be created and around 40 jobs once the facility is operational.
Urbaser Balfour Beatty plans to divert 92% of residual waste from landfill and 96% of biodegradable waste. Once built, the facility will generate 116,000 megawatts hours of electricity annually, enough to power more than 25,000 houses.
Javier Piero of UBB, said: “We’re obviously very pleased to be selected as the company to take forward Gloucestershire’s residual project. Our aim is to create a modern facility that not only serves Gloucestershire’s needs but also creates local jobs and generates energy for local communities.”
The project is hoped to save the council £150 million in landfill diversion with aspirations to push the recycling rate in the county up to 70% by 2030.
The council and UBB are working to finalise the details of the contract which it hopes will be signed in the summer next year with the view to have the facility operational by the end of 2015.
Complete Circle
Complete Circle had also been proposing to build an EfW incinerator using moving grate technology with the capacity to handle up to 180,000 tonnes of waste a year.
However, the proposal had a lower diversion rate of waste from landfill and less energy generation that the successful bid.
The Gloucestershire deal represents the second contract Shanks looks like it has lost out on this week after Earth Tech Skanska was named preferred bidder for Bradford and Calderdale’s 25-year waste disposal contract ahead of the Shanks and Scottish and Southern Energy’s 3SE consortium (see letsrecycle.com story). The company, working as part of the Resources from Waste consortium, is also thought to have lost out on another deal to Urbaser Balfour Beatty in Essex, although this is yet to be confirmed (see letsrecycle.com story).
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