Buckie Flood Alleviation Scheme

Nicol of Skene has recently reached completion of a £700,000 project in Buckie with Morrison Construction.

Buckie is a small fishing town on the Moray coast. The town lies half way between Elgin and Banff with a population of just over 8,000. Nicol of Skene has recently reached completion of a £700,000 project in the town with Morrison Construction. A house in Buckpool was flooded on multiple occasions, this became the catalyst for the project and pushed the scheme to take place. The project upsized the existing network to alleviate flooding of properties, land and highways. The project started in May and was completed by November 2018. The works were contracted to Amey Black and Veatch within a Scottish Water framework agreement.

Work was carried out in Sutherland Cresent and St Peters Terrace. The map below shows where the works took place.

A 525mm sewer was upsized to a 750mm sewer with a 150mm dry weather flow channel. Furthermore, 6 existing manholes were replaced, a potable water main was diverted and service connections were reconnected.

Nicol provided a turnkey project solution including site supervision, traffic management and streetworks administration. When the flood alleviation measures were in place, Nicol undertook reinstatement and reprofiling of all road surfaces.

For the works carried out in Buckie good health and safety practices on site were vital to everyone involved, including the public. Like any projects carried out in the industry challenges often arise, however Nicol is always quick in implementing a strategy to overcome these challenges.

The nature and location of the street and its existing services within the land often became challenging i.e. electric cables, water mains, sewer pipes etc. The site was in a busy location in the town with a school, church, shops and local amenties all impacted by the works. Transport was also disrupted. The roads were not open to cars and public transport had to be diverted.

Throughout the project the Nicol team made sure local residents were kept fully informed and every effort was made to minimise disruption. This included on bin day - putting out the residents’ bins!

With every project Nicol carry out they strive to learn from challenges they face;

"With this project it was evident there is great importance in thinking things through from the start. When carrying out work in communities I always find having a good relationship with the locals very important"

-Neil Mutch, Contracts Manager