WET News

Offsite build powers South East Water £22M treatment works expansion South East Water's expansion of Bray Keleher Water Treatment Works is in full swing, with offsite manufacture aiding efficiency By James Brockett 8 WET NEWS JANUARY 2019 | wwtonline.co.uk E fficient construction pro- cesses and the use of precast concrete panels have ena- bled South East Water to make quick progress on a major expan- sion to its Bray Keleher Water T r e a t m e n t W o r k s n e a r Maidenhead. The £22 million expansion pro- ject is an important part of South East Water's £424 million invest- ment programme for the 2015-20 AMP6 period. When the enlarged works is operational in 2020, it will see the Berkshire site expand in capacity from 45 ML/day to 68 ML/ day, becoming South East Water's biggest treatment works. The extra capacity is required to enable future population growth and allow the water-only company to serve 150,000 customers across B e r k s h i r e , H a m p s h i r e a n d Surrey. The Bray Keleher Water Treat- ment Works was built in the early 1990s and abstracts its raw water from the River Thames. It uses a multi-stage treatment process consisting of ozone pre-treatment; coagulation, flocculation and set- tlement; rapid gravity sand filtra- tion; inter ozonation; GAC filtra- tion; and disinfection by both UV treatment and chlorination. The expanded plant will follow the same treatment process, with the project adding tanks, channels and equipment at each stage to b r i ng ab o u t t h e 5 0 p e r ce n t increase in capacity; there will also be a ramping up of the site's sludge treatment capabilities. South East Water 's Water "This is a very significant pro- ject for our company and we've had a lot of interest in it. It's the biggest scheme we've done in the last decade," says Desmond Brown, head of engineering at South East Water. "In the planning stages we received a lot of support from resi- dents and councillors; we hosted a number of community drop-in s e s s i o n s , w h i c h w e r e w e l l attended, and the mayor of Wind- sor and Maidenhead came to visit the site. "Another thing that shouldn't be underestimated is the amount of internal communication and liaison. Our operations team have been involved right from the beginning, and we have a resource seconded from operations into our engineering team. We have found that very useful, saving a lot of Work began in July on the Bray Keleher expansion project ONSITE WATER TREATMENT Resource Management Plan, drawn up in AMP5, identified the need for enhanced supplies in the area to future proof the network. Thankfully, it was envisaged at the time the plant was built that it may need to expand in future years, so the utility had sufficient land available and a layout that made expansion pos- sible without demolishing the existing facilities. South East Water's Brian Steventon and Desmond Brown at the Bray Keleher site "Using precast concrete means that you have fewer people working at height, you've get fewer lifting operations going on, and it shortens the preliminary time that people are on site physically building, so there's a good safety benefit." Desmond Brown, head of engineering, South East Water time and effort – with a project like this it is key to get the operations team on side." With planning permission

• Cover