WET News

8 ALLIANCES 2019 Dwr Cymru Welsh Water's Capital Delivery Alliance is made up of two contractor- designer joint ventures in Morgan Sindall/Arup and Skanska/Arcadis as well as Mott MacDonald Bentley, a business formed by acquisition just before AMP6 began. The alliance is responsible for the design and build of water and wastewater assets above and below ground within the utility's coverage area in the five years to 2020. Welsh Water and its alliance partners work collaboratively in a co-located Integrated Solutions Team (IST), which is responsible for taking an overview of the AMP6 programme, identifying opportunities, developing innovative solutions and project bundling. Welsh Water's parent company, Glas Cymru, invested a record £431 million on capital projects in the year to 31 March 2018. It said in an annual report published this summer that it intended to spend at least £1.7 billion over the course of the current five-year regulatory period. The utility company – which covers most of Wales and some parts of western England – owns 26,500km of water mains, more than 30,000km of sewers and 838 sewage treatment works among other assets. It announced plans in September to spend £2 million removing a fatberg from a Victorian brick sewer in Cardiff Bay and then carrying out repair work. A new treatment works is being built at Hook in South Pembrokeshire to protect the environment, reduce flooding and boost river water quality. The final phase of the £8.5 million scheme – which will also involve decommissioning a plant in Johnston and replacing it with a pumping station and underground pipeline to the new works – started this summer. Another important project carried out by the alliance partners is a £31 million upgrade to Welsh Water's Bryn Cowlyd treatment works, on the east side of the Carneddau mountain range on the outskirts of Snowdo- nia National Park. The refurbished plant will provide additional levels of treat- ment, including hydrogena- tion dissolved air filtration (DAF), rapid gravity filter (RGF) units, sludge handling, a new chlorine drum store, chlorinators, generators and a high liž pumping station. Welsh Water in June revealed details of £40 million of extra projects to be funded by a customer dividend. This included adapting dams to cope with climate change and work to reduce the risk of flooding west of Cardiff. The utility launched its 2050 strategy this year, setting out how it plans to invest in its network to meet the biggest challenges of the next three decades – including changes in climate, demographics and technology. The Capital Delivery Alliance has developed a streamlined way of working with suppliers through its eSourcing Portal, which provides a suite of collabora- tive, web-based tools that enable procurement profes- sionals and suppliers to conduct the strategic activities of the procurement lifecycle over the internet. It provides a simple, secure and efficient means for managing tendering activities, reducing the time and effort required for both buyers and suppliers. It has also raised the bar on technological innovation, bringing in several techniques and technologies that enable it to do more with less. These have included virtual reality 'Igloo' training facilities, laser-point surveying and the use of drones, while the alliance partners have made great strides in progressing the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) for the first time for Welsh Water. The alliance has recently opened a new office in Newport, which is the first time the partners have been brought together in one building in a fully integrated team. This allows the alliance to share skills, knowledge and best practice, and bodes well for its ongoing success as it approach- es the challenges of AMP7. Capital Delivery Alliance PARTNERS: Skanska/Arcadis, Mott Macdonald Bentley, Morgan Sindall/Arup CLIENT: Dwr Cymru Welsh Water CONTRACT: Design & build of water and wastewater assets TERM: Five years, possible five-year extension ALLIANCES 2019: DWR CYMRU WELSH WATER CDA brings forward innovative techniques in Wales

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