Located in a remote part of the Scottish highlands, Glensanda Quarry is the largest quarrying operation in Europe, shipping all of its aggregates to market by sea. When looking to further expand its operations, the firm turned to AECOM for detailed engineering.
The project included the excavation of a new 220-metre-deep shaft so extracted materials could be handled more efficiently, and enabling an expansion of aggregate production from 7-15 million tonnes per year. AECOM provided the engineering for the shaft collar, the shaft, the receiving chamber, rock passes and access tunnels and an enlarged conveyor chamber. Works later extended to include supervision of the construction of the new facility.
Our services included a detailed review of the design and support requirements supplied by the construction contractor and reporting on all technical aspects of the scheme. The geotechnical team used computer models Unwedge and UDEC analysis to predict rock movements and optimise excavation sequences.