WET News

FEBRUARY "The benefits of our integrated offering, long-term strategic relationships with our clients and strong balance sheet position us well for the future and the significant opportunity we see across our rapidly changing end markets" Costain CEO Andrew Wyllie CBE after the group finished the year with an order book at a record level of £4.2 billion £60M Thames Water will partner with stakeholders and local authorities to fund £60 million of surface water management schemes, removing hard, impermeable surfaces such as concrete and asphalt in areas most at risk of flooding £12M Northumbrian Water and the Environment Agency are to spend £12 million on the modernisation of Riding Mill pumping station over the next two years, with Mott MacDonald Bentley carrying out the work "We are pleased to see that in many areas such as delivering customer satisfaction, assessing financial resilience and reducing pollution and sewer flooding, the dial is moving in the right direction. This now needs to be replicated across the board, so that all customers benefit from the highest levels of service" Ofwat's David Black after the regulator published its reports on service, delivery and fi nancial performance over 2017-18 "Importantly this year, we need to move on from talking about the undoubted benefits delivered since privatisation to continuing to tackle the issues that matter most to our customers in the 21st century, like driving down leakage and protecting the environment" Anglian Water CEO Peter Simpson A ccording to the Government's latest estimates, 1.5 million road excavations take place in England each year, and the disruption they cause – through things like employees turning up late for work and delayed deliveries – costs the economy about £5 billion. It's probably not worth worrying about how accurate those ‚ gures are likely to be – the key point is that the Government thinks it is a major issue and is stepping up its e„ orts to do something about it. A year ago, there was an announcement that the lane rental scheme, which allows local authorities to charge up to £2,500 per day for digging up busy roads, was being rolled out nationwide a‡ er trials by Transport for London and Kent County Council suggested it would help reduce disruption. Now, the Government has announced plans to hand over millions of pounds to university researchers to develop 1cm robots that can detect and repair pipes, with Science Minister Chris Skidmore saying that they could make the "dream of a world without roadworks disrupting our lives" a reality. The robots might indeed provide a signi‚ cant bene‚ t to utility companies and their contractors, although the promised technology is not exactly a wild leap in the dark – inline leakage detection technologies like Pure Technologies' SmartBall and PipeDiver have been around for several years, and numerous variations on the same technology have followed. It was also announced last year that a number of UK water companies have been in talks over Qinov8's AquaNav and AquaPea technologies, which are designed to both detect and repair leakage. Beyond the rise of the robots, it's important not to underestimate the potential for more widespread use of trenchless technologies, which have been used to install and repair pipelines for decades and can already eliminate the disruption caused by road excavations in many instances, with continued innovations in the ‚ eld improving the possibilities all the time. It's to be expected that there will always be jobs that better suit traditional excavations, at least within the foreseeable future, but there is hope in that area too. Ordnance Survey and Northumbrian Water, working alongside several utilities and local authorities, have come up with the basis for a digital mapping system that could one day provide instant access to information on what lies beneath the surface across the whole country (see P8). While it is unrealistic to expect the map to be exhaustive, the level of data should get better and better with time if both asset owners and those actually digging down are able to easily update the information, and it already promises to o„ er a massive upgrade on the status quo, which should mean greater e› ciency. In some areas, it feels like improvements on streetworks are long overdue. Ultimately, it's in the interests of utilities and contractors to do everything in their power to ‚ nd the most e› cient, least disruptive methods. The political spotlight – which also demands unprecedented e„ orts to cut leakage – could help ‚ nd new ways forward. IN A NUTSHELL 2 WET NEWS FEBRUARY 2019 | wwtonline.co.uk £2M Thames Water has been Š ned £2 million and ordered to pay full costs of £79,991.57 after raw sewage polluted an Oxfordshire stream, killing 146 Š sh. The sewage also flooded a nearby garden A tkins, working collabora- tively with Black & Ve- atch and RPS, has been awarded a contract to deliver a strategic modelling study for Anglian Water. The study will see the expertise of the three organisations combined to explore the early development of a number of proposed strategic pipeline schemes, which have the potential to transform water supplies across the east of England. Atkins, RPS and Black & Veatch have a strong track record of collaborative framework delivery in the water industry, having worked together on the likes of Thames Water's eight2o alliance and as part of a joint venture for Scottish Water. The strategic modelling study for Anglian Water will see the organisations undertake a feasibility workstream to deliver a conceptual base for the Strategic Pipeline Alliance, which will be used to enable the asset delivery process, and demonstrate a hydraulic model of existing and new assets to Anglian Water stakeholders. The work is due to be completed by December. Richard Whale, water market director for SNC- Lavalin's Atkins business, said: "Our work with Anglian Water will showcase our expertise in ¢ Organisations to work together on strategic modelling study for utility Atkins, Black & Veatch and RPS awarded Anglian Water contract early feasibility assessment, as we begin the journey to transform the region's forecasted long-term water resource needs into physical assets. "Drawing on technical expertise we've demonstrated on a series of major UK water projects, combined with the latest innovations in digital asset management, our collaboration will deliver a faster, smarter and more reliable outcome for Anglian Water and their customers, while also providing a robust foundation for future design and construction." Mark Kaney, director of asset management at Black & Veatch, said: "This is an exciting collaboration that will deliver a key strategic component of Anglian Water's AMP7 business plan. In providing our innovative digital services, and expertise in asset optimisation and planning to the team, Black & Veatch can play a major role in helping Anglian Water develop new and even more e› cient ways of working." Steve Hogg, water consultancy director (Services UK & NL) at RPS, added: "RPS is proud to be bringing its industry-leading expertise in clean water hydraulic modelling and network feasibility to this transformational project for Anglian Water. "The collaborative approach being adopted in delivery of the project will enable the team to deliver a high quality and high con‚ dence model to enable certainty in investment decisions as the project progresses." Atkins supports the water, wastewater and water-related environmental sectors with services from water strategy planning and ¥ ood management to infrastructure investment planning, design and asset optimisation. This project builds on Atkins' design development and initial business case preparation for Wessex Water's £225 million Optimiser project. COMMENT Moving into an era of streetwise streetworks Robin Hackett, Deputy Editor, WET News Moving into an era sera is one of the worldwide leading manufacturers in water treatment • Low investment costs • Economical operation • Easy commissioning • Reliable in operation • Customer specific construction based on modular design YOUR RELIABLE PARTNER IN WATER TREATMENT sera ProDos UK Ltd. +44 1733 396040 sales.uk@sera-web.com www.sera-web.com Atkins' Richard Whale

• Cover