We’re delighted to have been recognised for industry excellence in our involvement and collaborative efforts on the Thames Tideway Central project this year.
The Thames Tideway project is the biggest infrastructure project ever undertaken by the UK water industry. The 25km long tunnel runs mostly under the Thames, and will be used to capture, store and convey almost all the raw sewage and rainwater which overflows into the river.
Our work for this project has been recognised by the British Drilling Association, and we’re delighted to have been awarded the Industry Excellence Award. This award recognises a demonstration of technical excellence, innovation and/or collaborative working between a company and a BDA Member Company, plus one or more consultants, contractor’s or suppliers on a recently completed project, innovation or development initiative.
The challenges? A water supply well was operating nearby, and would significantly influence the water levels. There was a requirement from the client, and from the regulatory authority to limit the amount of drawdown created, so it was necessary to design an innovative pump control system.
Working with FLO (Ferrovial and Laing O’Rourke), this pump control system at Kirtling Street was fitted with an automated control to overcome the challenge posed above. The pump control system not only stops and starts when needed, but it also allows for variable speeds for each pump to achieve a selected and targeted abstraction flow rate to maintain the required drawdown (8-10m).
“The innovative control system designed and installed by WJ has operated totally reliably and worked so well at Kirtling Street, that we’ve implemented another at Heathwall. It has satisfied all stakeholders (contractor, client, EA) and saved money in reduced power consumption”.
Ponciano Perez Lupi, Project Manager, FLO Tideway Central
The estimated cost savings on mains electricity is approximately £31,000 over a 5-month period – equivalent to 260,000 kWh of electricity. To put this into perspective, the average kettle uses about 0.1 kWh of electricity to boil for 3 minutes…that’s a lot of cups of tea!
This system, plus the scale and variety of well and piezometer drilling across the project contributed to our success at the BDA Awards.
These solutions meant those involved were able to overcome the challenges of limited access and working space within the complex construction processes of the project.
On winning the award, Richard Fielden, Managing Director of WJ UK said “We were thrilled to win the BDA Award for Industry Excellence. WJ had to invest in our equipment and innovate in our drilling techniques to achieve the project objectives for Thames Tideway Central. The reward reflects the effort that WJ and FLO put into collaborative working and the successful implementation by our site teams of one of the most technically challenging dewatering schemes ever carried out in London”.
You can read more about our work with Thames Tideway, and our recent TV appearance, here.
Join the conversation