Winchburgh Developments Ltd has been using Causeway PDS and Flow to design roads and drainage networks for one of the biggest, most exciting place-making projects in the UK.
Once complete, the £1billion development, 12 miles west of Edinburgh, will deliver at least 3,800 new homes, improved transport links, employment opportunities, state-of-the-art schools, a new canal marina and stunning new outdoor spaces to the east coast of Scotland in a village called Winchburgh.
Working with the technical team at Winchburgh Developments Ltd, we have worked to ensure that the delivery of the development infrastructure meets the master plan requirements and that these works are delivered in line with the organisation’s business plan.
“With Causeway Live Design, your team can make real cost savings.”
“It’s always plain sailing with Causeway. That’s why I have been using their products for around 23 years.”
- Allan Mason, Technical Manager at Winchburgh Developments
Read on to find out how well Causeway Live Design helped to streamline the design of one of Scotland’s biggest development projects.
Live Design
We were delighted to be approached by Allan Mason, Technical Manager at Winchburgh Developments Ltd, in 2021 to support this project.
Allan has over 30 years development engineering experience in the property development and has been using the Causeway suite for over 20 of them.
In his previous role as Technical Director at Sweco, he was involved in developing the engineering strategy and design for the Winchburgh Masterplan, including the procurement and management of the core development infrastructure.
When Allan moved client-side in June 2021, that is when our journey with Winchburgh Developments Ltd began. Speaking on the partnership, Allan said:
“Winchburgh is such a collaborative venture with so many committed partners like Causeway.
“I had great awareness of the company’s offerings, and having previously used Causeway’s PDS software, I knew it was is simple to use and would be an excellent fit for Winchburgh Developments.”
As the Live Design tool has several functions, Winchburgh Developments have been able to use it throughout the various important stages of the design process. Allan said:
“Having this all-encompassing solution helps us out a great deal. As we use it from day one, you really start seeing the results almost immediately.
One day, our architects could be using the solution to do their appraisal layouts and grade analysis so they can see the steeper slopes and work out their layouts accordingly, and the next, our team could be using the flow package to look at roads and sewers.”
Improving flexibility
As one of the core functions of Allan’s role is undertake high-level appraisals quickly, whilst developers on site are doing their own, it’s important that these assessments are done on-schedule, so that costs are visible to all.
“Our partnership with Causeway has allowed us to develop a realistic design solution, put a viability cost against it and carry it forward quickly – which was integral for us.”
The flexibility of Live Design has also appealed to those working on the Winchburgh Developments due to the scale of the project. Working with a live solution gives Winchburgh Developments engineers the flexibility to pause and play projects, a feature which Alan has praised:
“Using Live Design, we are moving quicker than we imagined; however, if we did decide to slow down, it also has the ability to park projects and work on others.
This boosts our productivity as no time is wasted, the transition between projects is seamless, and being able to manage your time better is fantastic.”
As stated in our sustainability policy, Causeway promotes the reduction of waste and encourage recycling in all our activities, and we want to empower engineers, consultants, developers and approving authorities to do so too.
Like us, Winchburgh Development wanted to work as sustainably as possible, avoiding soil going off site and dealing with their earthworks locally. By using the Live design tool, Allan and the team were able to make real time amendments to designs in one environment ensuring iterations were reflected throughout the design.
“Live design has really supported our efforts to work sustainably. As many of the site sections have surplus soil, we can use the system to balance the earthworks and fill areas that have a deficit in materials.
One area of the site which is a focus for working sustainably is Block HH. In this section we are building a school, that will become a West Lothian Council building.
As Scotland looks towards a net-zero future, it is important to West Lothian Council that we are targeting sustainably issues (e.g. disposal of waste, earthworks movements, soil movements, cut-fill etc.) and using live designs we can really focus on improving these on-site
Not only has the Live Design solution helped us provide evidence, but we hope to gain green credentials for this part of the site.”
Before working with Causeway, Alan noted that on sections CC and FF of the site, the developer was generating around 11,000 cubic meters of surplus soils, an astonishing mass.
When Allan joined the project last year, targeting sustainability issues like this was a priority for him and his team. With Live Design Alan has now created a zoning plan for this area, which has allowed this surplus soil to be retained onsite*.
“The cost and time savings from this exercise have been game-changing for the development, as this volume of surplus soil would have required around 1400 wagon movements to remove it, which would cost around £200,000-£300,000.
“With fuel costs ever-increasing, it is important to us to cut costs wherever we can, and as this example is only from just one area of the site, you can imagine the magnitude of savings that will be made when using it across the site.”
*Excluding topsoil
“Using the Live Design tool and working with the team has helped us to really streamline the design process. It has been an invaluable asset, saving project time and reducing risk by migrating design processes into a single model.”
Allan Mason, Technical Manager at Winchburgh Developments
When speaking about Causeway Live Design’s biggest benefits, outside of sustainability and productivity, Allan highlighted customer service and support:
“Causeway takes a proactive approach when it comes to their customers, that’s for sure. Any issues that arose during the implementation phase were resolved very quickly.
The help desk team are an integral cog in the Causeway machine. In the past, if we asked for small improvements to the tool, you would often see them enforced when it comes to the next upgrade.”
We believe that the best business decisions are based off concrete data and that is why Causeway works very closely with their customers to truly understand the challenges they face.
With support from customers like Winchburgh Developments Ltd providing valuable feedback, Causeway has been able to develop software that really impacts productivity.
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