VolkerFitzpatrick, working alongside the Environment Agency, Woking Borough Council and Turner and Townsend successfully delivered the multifunctional scheme designed to protect over 198 homes from flooding.

VolkerFitzpatrick worked alongside sister company VolkerStevin, delivering new flood defences along a 2km stretch of the Hoe Steam.  The project also included land remediation, significant highway improvements including new bridges, new state of the art community facilities and extensive public open space with new wildlife habitats.

Sustainability was a major project driver which saw the transformation of a brownfield contaminated site into public open space. The area has benefited from major sustainable improvements throughout the whole project due to the innovative design, use of sustainable solutions and VolkerFitzpatrick's commitment to high standards and sustainable performance.

The commitment of the entire team in remediating and re-using material on site, including the remediation of the old Westfield Tip (110,000m³ of soil), has resulted in only 700m³ (0.64%) of material being disposed of off-site. All material on site has been re-used in the construction of landscape bunds, flood defences and a residential development platform.

Design and build management throughout the project focused on efficiency and innovation. For example for the flood defences and embankments passive design was used to reduce future maintenance, operation costs, incident response requirements and fail safe operation. Climate change predictions were also considered in the design development solution. Should the actual rate of climate change exceed predictions, the defences can be modified and raised 300mm without any strengthening work and up to 500mm with some additional strengthening.

Adrian Shah-Cundy, VolkerWessels UK head of HSEQS, said: "This VolkerFitzpatrick project has embraced our commitment to reducing our impact on the environment. Through innovative design, sustainable solutions and the sharing of best practice through collaborative working, the project team has been able to deliver exceptional results in the area of sustainability."

Cllr John Kingsbury, Leader of Woking Borough Council, said: "I am extremely proud that the Council has been recognised for the Hoe Valley Scheme by CEEQUAL. The scheme is a long held ambition of the Council to regenerate this part of the Borough and could only have been delivered through partnership working with the Environmental Agency and our contractors, Volker Fitzpatrick and Turner & Townsend.

"The resulting flood protection structures, state-of-the-art community facilities, extensive public open space and new wildlife habitats will be enjoyed by Borough residents for generations to come."

Roger Venables, Chief Executive of CEEQUAL, commenting on the project's assessment result, said: "I congratulate the Hoe Valley team on their achievement, both the project itself and the very high CEEQUAL score. We are proud and delighted by the continuing uptake of CEEQUAL and thank all involved in this project for using the CEEQUAL scheme to assess how well the project team dealt with the environmental and social issues they faced. A high CEEQUAL score recognises the significant contribution of the project to improving the sustainability of the communities it serves. Well done!"