Transport Network Steering Group
Notes of Meeting
Thursday 4th June 2015
Present
Joanna Murray, Chris Bain, Carol Benzie, Lynn Harwood, Andrew Douglas, Jonathan
Ashman, Andrew Detl, Duncan Cameron, Graham Christie, Mark Leishman, John Wilson,
Innes Cameron, David Phillips, Neil Howarth, Jenny Milne, Fiona Anderson, Rab Dickson,
Steve Walker, Alan Gorham, Scott Shaw, David Campbell, Steve Petrie, Irina Bonavino, LeeAnn Stewart, Roulè Wood, Joan Young
Apologies
Chris Douglas, Gavin Johnston, Andy Lyall, Gavin Murray, Graeme Scott, Michael Hughes,
Roderick Palmer, Robert Smith, Gemma Pott
Welcome
Carol Benzie, Managing Director of Aberdeen Airport and Chair of the Steering Group
welcomed all present to the meeting. Carol thanked Joanna Murray of Aberdeen City Council
for organising and hosting the venue. A health and safety briefing was given.
Notes of Last Meeting
Agreed.
Updates
Rail
Rab Dickson of Nestrans kindly gave an update for rail activities which covered the
following –
 Scottish Government are refreshing the National Transport Strategy before
Christmas, but likely to be a complete Review of NTS during the life of the next
Parliament. Network Rail are likely to publish a Scotland Route Strategy review in
December – this is a 30-year vision of how they see rail developing across Scotland.
Both of these represent an opportunity to influence future strategy, emphasising the
importance of connectivity to the north east.
 The Aberdeen to Inverness phase 1 work has now been awarded and will involve
realignment at Forres, platform extensions at Insch and Elgin, doubling most of the
track between Aberdeen and Inverurie and infrastructure to enable a new station at
Kintore. This is a £170million commitment and is scheduled to be completed by 2019
 Abellio who now operate the ScotRail franchise have ordered refurbished rolling
stock for their intercity services (which will include Aberdeen-Inverness and
Aberdeen-Glasgow/Edinburgh). These will be 125 type trains, so should be more
suitable for long distance as well as providing additional capacity
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Serco who operate overnight Sleeper services and East Coast also both have
commitments to new rolling stock in coming years
Local rail enhancements including additional stations and reduced journey times
between Aberdeen and Central Belt are likely to feature prominently in the City
Region Deal
Nestrans are actively involved in promoting active travel and behaviour change
through the Getabout partnership and have appointed a Cycling Development Officer
jointly with Sustrans and are delivering enhanced cycling infrastructure.
Questions which followed Rab’s update included –
 Update on the reducing of journey times to central belt? – Network Rail have done
analysis on the proposal and passed to Government which Rab intends on chasing
for an update in the next few weeks. There is an argument that the Government have
already committed to reducing journey times by 20 minutes. More information will be
expected this financial year.
 Is there any chance of improvements for the link between Dyce station and the
Airport? – Improvements for the access to the Airport from the Station has been
looked at in a general sense for access to both the Airport and the new AECC.
Improvements have been made to the bus connections.
Air
Carol Benzie of Aberdeen International Airport kindly gave an update for air activities which
included the following –
 6% down on passenger numbers at the end of October – year to date
 Helicopter traffic and services to Shetland are down although International traffic is
holding up well
 The demand for services to Heathrow is high after a loss of Virgin Little Red service.
Luffhansa have dropped their rotations from 3 to 2 per day. Flybe have dropped their
rotation to London City from 3 to 2 a day. KLM are maintaining their 5 rotations a day.
There has been a noticeable reduction in cabin class with a lot more passengers
choosing to fly economy class.
 Services from Iceland Air will begin in March 2016 with 4 rotations per week. Good
onward connections to the USA and Canada.
 Following the great success of Wizz Airs route to Gdansk, they have announced the
commencement of a 2 x weekly service to Warsaw commencing May 2016.
 A new route to Gran Canaria from Aberdeen is now on sale with Thomson for
Summer/Winter 2016.
 The plans for the Terminal expansion will be presented to the Board in January 2016.
Road
Joanna Murray of Aberdeen City Council kindly gave an update on infrastructure –
 A96 Dyce Drive Link Road to be complete and open by Summer 2016 with the Park
and Choose complete and operational by Autumn 2016.
 Third Don Crossing construction completion and opening by Spring 2016.
 Improvements to the Haudagain roundabout, following the publishing of draft Orders
on 26 June 2015, Transport Scotland are considering the objections that have been
made and will provide a summary of objections to Scottish Ministers who will make a
decision on how the scheme should proceed. It is intended that the design
specification/contract documentation will be prepared with a view to awarding the
contract for construction to start in late 2017 when the AWPR opens. Transport
Scotland will continue to liaise with the Council as the scheme progresses.
 Preparatory work staring in 2016 on Berryden – Maberly Street to St Machar Drive
improvements. CPO process will commence in Spring 2016. Construction planned
thereafter through to 2019. Advantage in early discussions with the developers of
Cornhill Hospital site.
 Improvements marked under the City Centre Master Plan - Modelling of Broad Street
and Upperkirkgate/ Schoolhill options underway – report to December 2016 full
council. Modelling of Union Street and Guild Street options early in the New Year –
report to March full council next steps planning/ further detail/ programming for
phased implementation.
Sea
Chris Bain of Aberdeen Harbour kindly gave an update on sea activities which covered the
following –
 Update on activity levels with vessel numbers down 5%, vessel tonnage down 1.8%,
and cargo down 3% which are fairly robust figures considering current economic
climate.
 There are increases in Northern Isles related activity, along with increased activity in
road salt and standby safety vessels, compared with this time last year
 In terms of the Aberdeen Harbour Expansion Project then it passed some major
milestones: Completed the Environmental Impact Assessment which was an 18
month study. Resulting Environmental Statement has been published on the
Aberdeen Harbour website. 3 applications for consent were issued earlier this month
to Marine Scotland for 2 Marine Licenses, Transport Scotland for a Harbour Revision
Order and Aberdeen City Council for Planning Permission in Principle – for the
changes to road layout at the harbour entrance area. All three applications are
currently within a 42 consultation period which ends mid-December.
 Meanwhile Drilling rig continuing with marine bore holes in Nigg Bay. Increasing the
knowledge of the geological landscape of the seabed and further de-risking the
project financially. Next big step is the commencement of the tender process in
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December. Ultimately the tender costs will have a huge bearing on whether the
project goes ahead.
There is continued support across the political spectrum for the project. There is a
level of local opposition, but the analysis of the public engagement feedback received
from the exhibitions in Torry and Union Square suggest 66% had no concerns
whatsoever regarding the impact of the development, with another 12% saying that
they had no view on this.
150% increase in average vessel size in last 25 years. 70% increase in the global
cruise market in last 10 years. Lerwick, Orkney, Invergordon and Edinburgh attracted
a total of 243 cruise calls last season, in the same period Aberdeen had just 9 cruise
calls, and all were smaller specialist vessels.
Other
David Phillips of First Aberdeen Ltd gave an update on buses including –
 Grasshopper ticket going from strength to strength with a proposed app to be
available for smart phones and devices in 2016.
 The feedback from the roll out of Hydrogen buses has been positive. First Aberdeen
currently running 4 hydrogen buses with Stagecoach running 6.
 £1million worth of vehicles coming into the City. New infrastructure will help with
future investments.
Steve Walker of Stagecoach Bluebird included the following –
 We should all start to look at working in partnership with current and future road
space.
 Stagecoach also investing in new fleet.
Duncan Cameron of ARR Craib Transport shared the following –
 Expected impact from the current Oil & Gas activity but diversifying and making the
most of new opportunities. Looking forward to the benefits that the AWPR will bring.
Presentation from AWPR-BT Project Team
Scott Shaw, - Project Manager of Transport Scotland, Graham Christie, - Project Director of
AWPR Construction Joint Venture, John Wilson - AWPR/B-T Managing Agent of Aberdeen
City Council and Mark Leishman - Site Representative of Jacobs kindly joined the group to
give an update on the AWPR project.
The presentation started by outlining the funding partners and businesses involved within the
project. Funding partners include –
 Aberdeen City Council
 Aberdeenshire Council
 Transport Scotland
The New Works Contractors include –
 AWPR Balmedie – Tipperty Joint Venture
 Balfour Beatty
 Morrison Construction
 Carillion
O&M Works Contractor –
 Balfour Beatty
The presentation then went onto explain the ‘headline quantities’ of the new works with
figures available to view in the presentation attached with the minutes. The phase opening
dates were shared as follows –
 Craibstone and Dyce Junctions - Autumn 2016
 Balmedie to Tipperty - Spring 2017
 AWPR/B-T - Winter 2017
The construction progress within the North Section of the project is as follows  Section offices established at Balmedie and Goval
 Pre-cast concrete beams installed for Tipperty Road Junction Underbridge
 Construction of Balmedie Junction about to commence
 Processing plant established at Cranfield
 Earthworks and structures in progress
The construction progress within the Centre Section of the project is as follows  Offices established at Craibstone and Kingswells
 Pile testing underway for River Dee and River Don crossings
 Two temporary bridges required; one already installed over the A944, another
planned to go over the A96 this weekend
 Earthworks and blasting in progress
 Culvert installation and structures under construction
 Works ongoing at Charleston and Stonehaven
The construction progress within the South Section of the project is as follows  Main project office established at Stonehaven with satellite offices at Rothnick and
Haremoss
 Processing area and laboratory at Rothnick
 Blasting and rock excavation in several locations
 Topsoil strip almost complete and earthworks progressing
 Several structures under construction
Traffic management is extremely important during this project to keep both travellers and
workers safe. The following measurements have been put it in place to ensure this –
 Sensitive to the needs of road users, the team considers all options to mitigate
against impact and disturbance, e.g. temporary bridges over the A944 and A96, and
off-peak working whenever possible
 The team liaises closely with local councils, network operators, traffic and travel
operators, the police and other emergency services before finalising plans
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Traffic management layouts include two-phase traffic signals; three-phase traffic
signals; lane closures; road closure; slow lane closures; and contraflows
 The general public will receive notifications of works through flyers, letters, Transport
Scotland website, and media outlets
Working hours have also been taken into consideration to limit the amount of disruption –
 Construction works proceed during operation hours of 07:00 until 19:00 Monday to
Friday and 08:00 until 13:00 on Saturday. Where any additional hours are required to
complete works, then this will be agreed in advance with the Local Authority following
a consultation exercise.
 At all times best practice methods will be used to keep any disturbance to a
minimum. Out-of-hours weekend working has been agreed in some areas up until
Christmas ‘Trades’ Holiday. Further applications for out-of-hours working may be
considered in the New Year.
The presentation then went on to highlight the supply chain opportunities that have been
made available to businesses and that will continue to made available –
 To date, £5.5 million worth of contracts have been awarded to Scottish businesses
 Orders have been placed with 47 Scottish SMEs and 1 Social Enterprise
 All supply chain opportunities are placed via Public Contracts Scotland
 Major materials contracts have already been awarded
 Potential suppliers and contractors are advised to contact the procurement team in
the first instance via awprbuyingteam@awprcjv
Community engagement has also played an important part for the project –
 Contact and Education Space established at Stonehaven
 Quarterly newsletters, monthly e-zine and flyers for all significant works, e.g. TTM,
blasting, focal interest. Community councils informed by Managing Agent of
upcoming works.
 Employment initiatives
 Landowner interface – circa 250 adjacent landowners along the route, as well as
affected residents in blasting zones
 A dedicated team of Community Liaison Officers operates across the project to
ensure that information is imparted to affected and enquiring parties and are
delighted to offer presentations on project construction progress, upcoming works
and address any other areas of interest.
The presentation concluded by sharing a video with attendees showing the temporary bridge
installatio at Kingsford just south of Kingswells. The video can be viewed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsg5-9pWvyc&feature=player_embedded
For more information about the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route/ Balmedie Tipperty
project, visit www.transportscotland.gov.uk/awpr-bt or contact the project team by phone or
email: enquiries@aberdeenroads.com / 0800 058 8350.
Questions which followed the presentation included –
 Have there been challenging policy issues? – There is undoubtedly a skills shortage,
we are looking to advertise for certain roles again as any labour resource is scarce at
the moment. There are a huge amount of staff already involved with 900 already
employed from all different backgrounds. Projects like the AWPR give a perfect
opportunity for skills shortages in construction to be addressed.
 Before the project started, was there an issue with accommodation for workers? – To
date there hasn’t been an issue although it was initially thought to be a large risk.
There is a camp being built at Craibstone currently with will be ready in January 2016
and will have capacity for up to 400 workers.
There was an open discussion regarding the communication of the traffic management
measures with the traffic management portal on the website being re-designed to include
weekly updates.
ACTION: Roulè to liaise with Chamber communications team to circulate updates
AOB
Irina Bonavino, Research & Policy Assistant at AGCC gave a short update on the policy
activities – A handout was made available at the meeting and is attached with the meeting.
The Chamber are currently writing a business manifesto for the Scottish Government and
Parliament which includes a section on Transport. Irina asked members to have a look over
the document and come back to her with any comments or feedback they have.
Roulè Wood, Membership Network Manager at AGCC gave a short update on Chamber
events and training. The Chamber are offering all members within the Transport sector ‘buy
one get one free’ on all training courses till March 2016.
Date of Next Meeting
TBC
Volunteers to host future meetings always welcomed.