If you have been walking around Wick riverside recently you could not fail to notice part of the popular route has been blocked off due to engineering works.

Many walkers and children at the nearby playpark have asked what the nature of the work is and have been using a diversion route marked out by specialist railway infrastructure contractors QTS and Westlin.

As a channel was being dug down a steep path and pipes laid down, a Westlin foreman at the site explained that the Falkirk-based team was removing "outfall drainage from the oil separator" connected to the nearby rail track and sidings.

He said: "There are two lines in the [railway] station. One side is down and the other is up. We're going underneath the tracks – the up and the down – and the sidings as well. Underneath the sidings and the old platform we're going take all the contamination out – which will be tested before it goes offsite."

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The foreman said that other pipes pierced with holes will be placed further up and closer to the tracks and these will collect rainwater that has been contaminated with oil lying under the surface.

"It will go right the way down to the oil separator which will remove any oil and diesel and then right out of here as clean water to the river."

The former site of the milk marketing board, close to the railway tracks, has long been considered to be contaminated ground and engineering projects have been carried out in the past to deal with dangerous materials leaching out from it.

A YouTuber called Far North Rail Rambler recently did a short video showing the problem area.

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