Ness Country Park

26 Jul 2010 - CPD Engineers meet the challenge of the Ness Country Park Project.

Ness Country Park near Claudy in Co. Derry was conceived by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) in the 1990s, when an opportunity was identified to purchase some agricultural land between existing NIEA maintained parks and woodlands at Ervey and Ness.

The concept was to link Ervey Wood and Ness Wood by creating a seamless wildlife corridor and incorporate a cottage style visitor centre and a series of paths, carparks, picnic sites and link bridges across the Burntollet River that would benefit all the users of this great site.

A key feature of the design and construction of the park is the attention to, and sensitivity for, the environment. There are a number of sustainable features incorporated in the building and around the park including:-

1. Rainwater harvesting - All water demand throughout the year for flushing toilets in the visitor centre is met with the rainwater harvesting system. It was estimated that there would be 50 flushes a day at peak times for each toilet, resulting in a water saving of 675 litres per day.
2. Solar Panels - Solar water heating can provide about a third of the hot water needs of the building. The average domestic system reduces C0₂ by around 325kg per year.
3. Reed bed for tertiary treatment of wastewater – Wastewater flows from the visitor centre are treated in a small package plant before passing through a horizontal flow reed bed which discharges to the Burntollet River. The Burntollet River is a designated salmon river and the reed bed ‘polishes’ the effluent ensuring a high quality discharge into such an environmentally sensitive river.
4. Waterless Urinals - An average urinal uses 2.2 litres per flush. Assuming 50 flushes per urinal per day at the visitor centre at peak times, there is a saving on water consumption of 220 litres per day.
5. Low Capacity Toilet Cisterns - Cisterns are 4.5 litres capacity and the toilet bowl is specifically designed to be effective with such a low volume of water.
6. Clay lining to Pond – A man-made pond was constructed within the park. The sub-soils were of a silty-gravelly nature with low impermeability value. The base of the pond was lined with an imported natural puddle clay instead of a more convenient rubber or plastic liner.
7. Sensor water/air mixer taps - All taps to wash-hand basins in the visitor centre operate at 5 litres per minute. Normal mixers operate at 7.5 litres per minute. Also, the control is sensor operated so that the risk of leaving taps running is eliminated.
8. Passivent natural ventilation system – A natural ventilation system was installed in the building which requires no power to run.
9. Reuse of all excavated material on site – All material that was excavated to construct the roads, carparks, paths and building was reused to landscape the site. This was of significant environmental benefit with less fuel consumption and lower emissions for plant travelling short distances, no disruption to traffic or pedestrians with heavy lorries on public roads. In total, approximately 30,000 tonnes of material was relocated.

The construction work throughout the park presented a range of challenges to CPD engineers. An example of this was the construction of the two pedestrian bridges. Normally this would have been a straightforward process. However, as a result of the European designation and sensitivity of the Burntollet River, strict pollution prevention measures were in place. There were also requirements to meet Rivers Agency flood levels, Loughs Agency working restrictions due to the salmon run and spawning season and NIEA wildlife protection measures.

Since Ness Country Park opened last summer, the numbers visiting the park have steadily grown and it has become a very popular destination for walkers, joggers, families and schools. It has had many visits from other clients who have used ideas incorporated at Ness in their own environmental projects. One very positive aspect of the new park is that less able walkers can access the river along the new paths which were deliberately designed to facilitate this requirement.