Hope Cement Works New Conveyor

BT Bell provided the structural design for the steelwork supporting a new materials-handling system at Hope Cement Works, Derbyshire, forming part of Breedon Cement’s Alternative Raw Materials (ARM) Project. The scheme enables greater use of recycled pulverised fuel ash (PFA) and slate within the cement manufacturing process, with materials delivered to the site by rail and transferred to new storage and processing facilities.

The project incorporated approximately 300 m of elevated conveyor gantry, designed to handle material at rates of up to 370 m³/hour (approximately 580 tonnes/hour), with individual gantry spans of up to 40 m. The structural arrangement was developed around the constraints of an operational cement works, including crossings over live road and rail infrastructure, almost 100 years of buried services, and required clearances to adjacent 66 kV and 11 kV substations.

Careful positioning of the supporting trestles allowed long-span sections of conveyor to avoid existing infrastructure and maintain essential vehicle routes around the works. The completed system transfers material from the rail unloading facility to a bulk storage building capable of storing approximately 4,000 tonnes of PFA and 2,000 tonnes of slate, before the materials are reclaimed, blended and introduced into the existing cement production process.