Infrastructure solutions company Costain and AE Yates, a civil and structural engineering delivery specialist, have teamed up with Hyperion Robotics to deliver low-carbon concrete sleepers for a landmark East Coast Cluster project on Teesside.
Northern Endurance Partnership’s (NEP) onshore CO2-gathering system will provide the CO2 transportation and storage infrastructure for Teesside-based carbon capture projects. Costain is the delivery partner to NEP, while AE Yates is providing civil engineering services.
Costain and AE Yates will work with Hyperion to produce about 90 high-strength concrete pipe-support bases (pictured above), or sleepers, along 1.3 kilometres of onshore CO2 pipelines across Teesside using its advanced robotic manufacturing and digital technology.
Through innovative robotic 3D printing, Hyperion’s technology eliminates formwork and enables precise, repeatable production of the sleepers. This approach, when compared to traditional precast solutions, will require less soil excavation and reduce concrete and steel use by 40 per cent and carbon emissions by up to 50 per cent. The engineering-led solution is up to ten times stronger than traditional structures, despite being up to 60 per cent lighter, thanks to a thin, reinforced base design. This will enable faster and safer installation of the sleepers, which will also be manufactured offsite to reduce on-site labour and plant.
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Hyperion will oversee its role in the project from Forge I, its new UK manufacturing facility near Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire.
‘Hyperion’s 3D-printing solution will provide myriad efficiency, sustainability and safety benefits for this important project, while at the same time supporting economic growth and prosperity across Teesside,’ said Mark Howard, programme director at Costain.
‘By combining engineering expertise, digital design and automated manufacturing, we can reduce material use and carbon emissions while meeting the highest standards of quality, performance and code compliance,’ said Fernando De los Rios, CEO of Hyperion Robotics. ‘This is more than a single project milestone. It is a practical example of how the UK can build critical infrastructure faster, more efficiently and with a lower carbon footprint by bringing together strong delivery partners, advanced technology and local manufacturing capability.’
Costain is also the delivery partner for Net Zero Teesside Power (NZT Power), which aims to be the world’s first gas-fired power station with carbon capture and storage. To date, roughly 200 people from Costain are delivering and managing the engineering, procurement and construction elements of the NZT NEP OSBL project, in addition to about 100 designers and engineers based in Manchester.