Windermere Steamboat Museum, Windermere

This contract took WJ to the shores of picturesque Lake Windermere in the heart of the Lake District, to help contribute to the extensive history of the area.

Whilst renowned for its picturesque beauty, Lake Windermere also has a long maritime history, particularly for Steamers which are an ideal way for tourists to see the area. In order to properly showcase this history and undertake valuable conservation works, it was determined that it was necessary to rejuvenate the existing steam boat museum.

WJ were required to install a wellpoint dewatering system on site to aid the construction of a new pumping chamber, petrol interceptor, and drainage, as well as for the

foundations for the new main museum building. This required a great deal of flexibility of WJ’s part to ensure the systems were all installed, commissioned and pumping in line with the main contractors, Thomas Armstrong Construction, programme. This split the works in to two separate phases of well installation, commissioning and pumping, and indicates how WJ are able to adapt systems and works procedures to best suite the requirements of the main contractor and other stakeholders.

The wellpoint dewatering systems were installed in variable granular and cohesive glaciofluvial deposits, overlying the mudstone bedrock, in order to reduce the standing groundwater levels in the glaciofluvial deposits to enable a dry excavation. The hydrogeological conditions at the site are

governed not only by the geology of the site, but also by the groundwater levels in the adjacent Lake Windermere.

You can read more about the regeneration of the site, in particularly the successful dewatering, here on the museum’s own blog.

• LOCATION: Windermere Steamboat Museum, Rayrigg Road, Windermere

• MAIN CONTRACTOR: Thomas Armstrong Construction