WET News

2 WET NEWS FEBRUARY 2014 Pump Hire Specialists The ideal way to pump water across a road or pathway while maintaining vehicle access sales@marispumps.com www.roadramp.co.uk 01246 201111 24/7 Ramp & Pump Hire Service - Guaranteed! Call 01246 201111 Road Ramp & Pedestrian Ramp - Reliable & Durable Pipe Ramps TM TM Road Ramp & Pedestrian Ramp TM TM • Unique patented design offers strongest ramp on the market! • Available for sale or to hire plus bespoke options available. • Load tested up to 70 tonnes - suitable for all vehicle sizes. • Does not block - even on the heaviest sewerage jobs. • Low profile apex of just 75mm - that's less than a speed bump! • Cost-saving and causes minimal traffic disruption. • Call us on 01246 201111 for more information. COMMENT "There's a lot more collaboration than there used to be" NEWS+ May 750 The number of hours of footage shot for the six episodes of Watermen: A Dirty Business, BBC2's documentary following United Utilities' workforce. "The UK Regulators Network is a positive move that could bring consist- ency of application to regulation across the UK" Steve Bromhead, EC Harris Scottish Water says 50% of its assets (treatment works / pumping stations) were built in the past 20 years; and 30% of the 2,700 sewer flooding incidents a month will recur within 12 months. 30% 50% IN A NUTSHELL "You wouldn't think a — sh this size would — t down the toilet..." Severn Trent Water £140M "The £140M announced in ttoday's Budget for repairs to UK flood defences is a sticking plaster approach and simply does not go far enough" Dr Colin Brown, IMechE £440M The water companies expected transition spend in the run-up to AMP6 "We are making excellent progress with the tender process and we are confident that well will receive competitive bids that will result in the best value for our customers" Mike Gerrard, Thames Tideway Tunnel "As the economic upturn gathers momentum, ensuring we have a workforce which has the training and skills to enable us to be a leader on the global infrastructure market remains our priority" Andrew McNaughton, Balfour Beatty £4.4M The government fund- ing received for Balfour Beatty's nationwide skills academy. I nvestigative work in and around the River Clyde in Glasgow is to be carried out by Scottish Water ahead of its planned infrastructure invest- ment to improve the natural environment of the river. The investigation work, which is about to start, will involve Scottish Water contrac- tor ESG carrying out detailed surveys of ground conditions at various locations as part of the planning work for the £250M investment, which is the largest in the Greater Glas- gow area's wastewater network in more than a century. The investment will improve river water quality and the nat- ural environment of the River Clyde and its tributaries, ena- ble the area to grow and develop, tackle sewer „ ooding and deal with the e… ects of increased rainfall and climate change. The site investigation work will include the use of a rig on a barge that will take samples of rock and subsoil from the bed of the River Clyde to the south of South Street and north of the Shieldhall wastewater † Scottish Water and ESG to carry out detailed surveys in preparation for The planned £250M investment in Greater Glasgow's wastewater network Investigative work to start on River Clyde NEED TO KNOW Scottish Water announced in February 2013 its plans for the £250M, — ve-year project The upgrade will improve river water quality and the natural environment of the River Clyde and its tributaries The scheme includes building a £100M stormwater storage tunnel between Queen's Park and Craigton Industrial Estate I t's great news that the water companies are planning to bring forward £440M of in- vestment from AMP6 into 2014-15 to help tackle the peaks and troughs experienced with the Ž ve-yearly cycles (see front page). Ofwat and the cross-industry Cyclicality Working Group should be congratulated for their hard work in making this transition spend happen. It really does show what can happen when the industry as a whole works together. I welcome this transition spend because it will go a long way to lessening the negative impact of the cyclical AMP period. Construction staff However, I also hear the shouts from the parts of the industry's supply chain that will not beneŽ t from this investment now. Contractors tell me that the transition spend is great for design sta… but there are still issues surrounding the retention of site-based and construction sta… . A spokesman for the Cyclicality Working Group does not disagree with this state- ment, but he is quick to reassure that implementing the design side early will mean the rest of the supply chain will see movement much sooner than if everyone was starting from April 2015. I suppose the Cyclicality Working Group's work so far was never going to please everyone. But its work is ongoing, and will require the input of all concerned to ensure the AMP cycle peaks and troughs are eliminated once and for all. Anglian Water's innovative thinking With next year's arrival of AMP6, innovation is thriving among the water companies, as can be witnessed with Anglian Water's appointment of six capital delivery partners for the next AMP cycle. Balfour Beatty, Barhale, Grontmij, Mott MacDonald and JN Bentley joint venture MMB, MWH and Skanska are the chosen six to deliver Anglian Water's £1.3B capital delivery programme as part of the new Integrated Main Works Capital Alliance. What makes this appoint- ment so innovative are two things. Firstly, Anglian Wate put every aspect of its capital investment out to tender at the same time, ranging from large new treatment works to small leakage repairs and new property connections. Secondly, each contractor's deal is for 15 years and reviewed every Ž ve years. Taking the Ž rst point, this must o… er huge savings all round in terms of time taken for each tender submitted. Then there is the Ž nancial saving from what is a very costly process by only having one submission. The 15-year contract is great, and I'm sure will go along way to smoothing out the AMP cycle peaks and troughs, as well as ensuring one of the longest collaborations in the industry. Do you agree? Let me know at maureen.gaines@fav-house.com treatment works. The information obtained will create a proŽ le of the depth of the river bed and the geologi- cal conditions around Glasgow as part of the widespread inves- tigation work. Also, a small boat will use radar to survey parts of the River Clyde to iden- tify any obstructions. Ballast will be lowered into the River Kelvin to form a tem- porary platform from which the rig will be also be used to per- form survey work. There will be further site investigation work on land near the north bank of the River Clyde that will involve the drill- ing of boreholes on land at various locations near Partick Pumping Station, Clydeside Expressway, Castlebank Street, South Street and Clydeholm Road. This work will establish ground conditions and locate services in these areas. Mark Maclaren, Scottish Water's regional communities team manager, said: "Scottish Water's planned investment in the area will deliver major envi- ronmental beneŽ ts for years to come and details of this work will be made available when we are about to start the pro- ject. This investigative work we are starting now is a key part of our preparations for the project." The work is expected to be completed by the end of May or early June. SHARE YOUR OPINION... yoursaywn@fav-house.com

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