Sustainability

Transport Scotland support and use the Civil Engineering Environment Quality Assessment and Award Scheme (CEEQUAL) on a number of our transport infrastructure projects. We utilise the Major Projects manual and Term Contracts for our major schemes and maintenance contracts respectively.

In November 2015, the BRE acquired CEEQUAL in move to develop a new sustainability rating scheme for infrastructure. The acquisition did not alter our view on CEEQUAL; we are still committed to the process.

Major Project

We have achieved CEEQUAL Major Project verification on some of our major road projects, as a means of assessing and rating sustainability performance:

  • Forth Replacement Crossing - Interim Client and Outline Design Award achieving a score of 92.7%
  • Forth Replacement Crossing – Fife ITS project achieved a score of 91.6%
  • Upper Kincardine Bridge - Whole Project Award, achieving a very Good score
  • M74 completion project - Whole Project Award, achieving a score of 82% which equates to an Excellent rating
  • A number of our major projects are currently under assessment including the A90 A96 Haudagain Roundabout and the A82 Tarbet to Inverarnan

Term contracts

Our Forth Generation Term Maintenance Contracts state that Operating Companies would be expected to use CEEQUAL Term Contracts as a means of practically demonstrating sustainability leadership. We have not stated a specific rating (percentage) to be achieved.

In 2011, we participated with Amey, PAGplus and CEEQUAl in a pilot study to test the draft CEEQUAL Term Contracts Manual. Using the M74 work contract at Junction five, the following outcomes were achieved:

  • CEEQUAL received feedback regarding the viability and flexibility of the manual questions
  • Transport Scotland refined our contractual approach to CEEQUAL IN THE Fourth Generation Maintenance Contracts whilst the preliminary PAGplus sustainability monitoring in our Third Generation Maintenance Contracts were directly influenced by the pilot findings.
  • Amey upgraded the pilot assessments to a formal Term Contracts award: the first ever Term Contract award in Scotland

In 2015, Bear Scotland and Amey committed to assess their respective 4G term maintenance contracts under CEEQUAL for the remaining contract duration. This would cover the North East and North West Contracts (for Beath Scotland) and the South East Contract (for Amey). As part of this process, we have provided answers to the client section of CEEQUAL in order to define the scope of the assessment.

Benefits

We believe that CEEQUAL sustainability assessment methods bring benefits, and can be a mechanism for improving Scotland's built environment, which is why we're using it on our projects.

Benefits that we have identified from our application of CEEQUAL include:

  • Driver for consistent evidence collection which can facilitate access to information for inclusion within Ministerial briefings or Parliamentary Question core beliefs, in addition to responses to FOI enquiries.
  • Offers independent verification and certification of our construction and maintenance activities whilst enabling benchmarking, collaboration and knowledge sharing with industry client peers.
  • Prompts repetition of good practice and consistency in approach to sustainability across design, construction and maintenance teams and stages.
  • Ability to cover sustainability aspects that are not routinely addressed by existing processes such as Environmental Impact Assessments or the design Manual for Roads and Bridges

A practitioners view of CEEQUAL with regard to its application on the Forth Replacement Crossing was provided by Steven Brown, Road and Infrastructure Manager for Transport Scotland at the CEEQUAL Version 5 launch in Scotland on the Version 5 Launch on the 29 June 2012

Input into CEEQUAL Governance

We participate in, and are members of, the CEEQUAL management steering committee which determines how CEEQUAL manuals are revised, updated or created.

CEEQUAL Assessors

We directly employ six qualified CEEQUAL assessors across our MTRIPS and TRBO Directorates.