One of the UK’s largest water and wastewater treatment works has chosen a pioneering alternative for its water pipe systems,that will help improve the water infrastructure to over 1.8 million homes in the West Midlands.
Severn Trent Water’s £150 million Minworth wastewater treatment works, near Birmingham, which is the second largest in the UK, has selected leading water management solutions provider, Asset International Ltd (Asset), to provide more than two miles of pipe for the multi-phase project. The site is due for completion in May 2010.
Contractors Bi Water, in partnership with BNMAlliance, have opted to use Weholite, the high density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe manufactured by Asset, instead of more traditional materials such as concrete or ductile iron.
The large-scale project will use 1.65 metre diameter pipes to carry water in steep vertical drops of up to five metres and 6x9 mm diameter pipes for carrying waste from the massive distribution chambers. At times the pipes will carry up to five million litres of water per second from the distribution chambers.
Aside from traditional piping formats, Weholite has also been used in additional parts of the project. Bi Water required a lightweight and easy to install material for manholes and as Weholite pipes are made to order and prefabricated, they were quickly and simply placed, reaching depths of up to five metres underground.
The expansive project often has as many as 400 workers on site at any one time so an astute health and safety policy is crucial. As the Weholite pipe can reach heights of up to 2.8 metres, Asset, working with Bi Water, ensured the pipes were delivered in strict stacking heights providing easy and safe access for offloading the pipe from delivery lorries.
Pat Heffernan, Bi Water site manager, said: “Because Weholite is both lightweight and flexible it’s helped remove a number of health and safety issues. The pipes are easier to handle and because they are prefabricated, they arrive ready to use, giving us quick and easy access to the chambers”.
Mark Lee, project manager at Minworth for BNMAlliance agreed:
“The manual handling of the pipes is much easier as plastic is lightweight and therefore much quicker to handle. This means there is a reduced risk of accident, which really helps our health and safety measures”.
The pipes have also proved highly ductile, easily managed on site as slots are simply inserted into the plastic for quick placement.
Paul Fisher, Project Manager at Minworth for Severn Trent Water said “The project is the UK’s largest in terms of land scale and with hundreds of men on site, Asset’s quick delivery and ease of installation helps keep our project costs down”.
Simon Thomas, managing director at Asset International added: “We continually strive to offer a versatile service for all our orders. Our pipes are made to order and coupled with a rapid manufacture time we offer a number of benefits to projects that require a quick turn around on materials”.
“As Weholite allows for swift installation, another advantage is the significant time and cost savings, especially when compared with other traditional materials”.
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