Halbeath Park & Ride

Halbeath Park & Ride is a bus park and ride scheme located just north of Dunfermline in Fife. The project is already being held up as an inspirational example in other towns in terms of efficiency, accessibility, usability and sustainability.

Halbeath Park & Ride is a bus park & ride scheme located just north of Dunfermline in Fife, primarily for commuter journeys to Edinburgh. Having just opened, Halbeath Park & Ride is already being held up as an inspirational example in other towns. In terms of efficiency, accessibility, usability and sustainability, the project marks a major improvement in the transport infrastructure of Fife and Edinburgh.

The site extends over a surface area of 65,682m2 and comprises a Park & Ride Public Transport Hub, which provides 1,021 parking spaces including 48 disabled spaces, 12 electric car charging spaces and associated interchange provision, six bus stances, and a 250m2 single-storey facility building on reinforced ring beam foundations and structural concrete floor slab. The car park is built on top of an extensive sustainable drainage system (SUDS), which outfalls to the North West boundary into the Mowbray burn.

Halbeath Park & Ride was handed over on 6th November 2013 with over 2,700m of drainage completed, road network facility comprising 9,540m2 of tar roads, 4,550m2 of tar paths, 3,950m2 of specialist coloured tar to the pedestrian concourse, and a total of 23,325m2 of porous paviours in the SUDS-designed car park.

Since the project started in October 2012, many challenges had to be overcome due to design alterations and changes in the scope of the works. 

This led to several major contractor-led value engineering exercises, such as the introduction of lime stabilisation of the soils (57,000m³) to render them suitable for compaction as structural fill; a geotextile laid in parts of the site to mitigate the potential of sinkholes opening (as the ground investigation highlighted evidence of former mine workings on the site); the substitution of fibre concrete to the bus bays and concourse (1,800m²) in lieu of reinforced air-entrained concrete (with the associated reduction in construction joints, expansion joints and reinforcement); all saving the client time and money.

Specialist works were also undertaken to bring power and water to the site via the directional drilling of six ducts - a distance of 112m each - below the A92 and the Crossgates Road dual carriageway.

Our team was in consultation and meetings with Bear Scotland regarding the coordination and application for lane closures and overnight road closures on the main Fife artery routes (M90 and A92) for signage installation and resurfacing works. The works were carried out under strict time restrictions, successfully avoiding major congestion on these important routes.

A consultation process was also carried out with local firms with regards to any possible impact the road closures would have on their business, and how Robertson could help accommodate their needs.

Major engineering works were introduced at an advanced stage of the programme to link the bus stop on the A92 to the Park & Ride facility, which included in-filling a 10-15m level difference to create a compliant gradient link footpath and also carry out the installation of additional street lighting. These works were completed ahead of the programme date.

The complex design of the distinctive transport hub building was a major challenging factor when it came to Health & Safety and being able to construct the building, as every different stage of the construction process required a review of how to make the next stage of the process safe.

The successful delivery of the Halbeath Park & Ride project for Fife Council is a testimony to the strong collaborative working approach adopted by Fife Council and Robertson in the spirit of NEC3, which was developed from pre-construction stage with the council management team to overcome early design development issues.

This provided a firm foundation on which to develop and build the Fife Council/Robertson site management team, supported by an excellent workforce and supply chain, while ensuring that Transport Scotland's needs and expectations were fully interpreted and delivered on time and to budget.