Water and Effluent Treatment Magazine
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ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE B ristol Water's Southern Resilience Scheme, which is currentlyunder construction, demonstrates the logistics services o ered by Saint-Gobain PAM UK. The Southern Resilience Scheme is a new £27M water infrastructure project that will provide improved security of supply to more than 280,000 customers across Bristol Water's supply area, including Weston-Super-Mare, Cheddar, Burnham, Glastonbury and the southern part of Bristol. This newtrunk mainwill give Bristol Water increased flexibility and allow it to move water from its northern sources into its southern region in the event of a loss of supply, or water back up to northern Bristol if supply is lost inthis region.Put simply, it means if there is asupply issue, customers' water supply can bemore readilyrestored. In addition, the newtrunk mainwill help Bristol Water to meet increased demand for waterin the southern regionsover the coming years. Saint-Gobain PAM UK is supplying ductile iron pipes, ‹ ttings Logistics expertise from Saint-Gobain PAM UK Logistics assistance and advice form a key part of Saint- Gobain PAM UK's range of services for contractors and their utility company clients. and accessories along a 30km stretch of the new trunk main. Products include the company's 700mm Standard Pipe, 700mm Universal with some 600mm Standard pipes including a large range of fabricated pipes and ‹ ttings. The project is expected tobe brought into servicein 2018. When Saint-Gobain PAM UK won the contract to supply its products, the company was provided with drawings and details for 18 proposed delivery points. At this time, the company undertook in-depth desktop research on each delivery point, which took three months to complete,such was the thoroughness of the study. Information gained from this research was fed back to the project's contractor.Site meetings were thenconvenedwith the contractor in Bristol to discuss the research ‹ ndings. Followingthis, Saint-Gobain PAM UK was able toextendits investigations to include physically driving the proposed routes delivery lorries would be taking, and to check thoroughly all delivery zones. The results of those physical investigations were then used toupdatethose of the desktop research, and all the resultant information was re-presented to the contractor and to Bristol Water over a number of meetings. During the physical research a number of key new pieces of information were unearthed. For example, at one delivery site it was discovered that delivery vehicles exiting the site would be subject to a potentially dangerous blind spot. Saint-Gobain PAM UK was able toidentify a need to alter the position of the site accessapproximately 25m further along the roadso that lorries could exit safely, and cars travelling along the road had plenty of time to spot drivers turning and slow down. Assessing the expected speed of travel of cars using the road formed part of the process. The revised location of the siteaccessmeans an improved safety outcome for thesite. Many other similar changes were made to the proposed deliv- erysitesand routes, for example in order to accommodate schools, villages and residential areas in order to optimise health and safety. In addition, Saint-Gobain PAM UK was able to use its research results to recommend areas for redesign of certain site compounds. For example, on one compound the company could advise on a reduction in the footprint of an area in which lorries would be required to turn. In another, the company could recommend that vehicles would not need to access certain zones. Optimising the layout of compounds is helping to optimise safety and keep costs down for the contractor. Each compound hasspeci‹ cindi- vidualrequirements. At the Bristol Water scheme, Saint-Gobain PAM UK has also provided the contractor with training on best practice for delivery, o loading, handling and storage of ductile ironproducts. In addition, technical training has also been given by the company on how toinstall thepipes and ‹ ttingscorrectlyand eš ciently. At the time of writing more than 250 vehicle deliveries have been made across the scheme. Mike Lancaster, Senior Project Manager with Bristol Water plc, said: "The pre-construction engagement that we had with Saint-Gobain PAM UK really was fundamental to the smooth delivery of pipe to the extended site. At 30km long we had to identify a number of compounds and pipe storage facilities to service the scheme. With Saint-Gobain PAM UK's input, we were able to identify those sites that were suitable and conversely those sites that were not suitable at a very early stage of the project. In the ‹ nal analysis, we have safely received the pipe and products from Saint-Gobain PAM UK without causing any signi‹ cant issues for the local road network." At the time of writing, Saint- Gobain PAM UK is currently investigating a cutting-edge, fail safe o loading technique for contractors and their clients, which will o er approximately 75% reduction in e ort required compared to traditional o loading methods, and whose greater control means improved health and safety. The company is undertaking thorough research and testing of equipment and hopes to be able to o er this new service soon. Contact dertails For further information on the compa- ny's range of logistics services and ductile iron pipeline products visit http://www.saint-gobain-pam.co.uk 12 WET NEWS DECEMBER 2017