WET News

wwtonline.co.uk | MAY 2018 WET NEWS 13 NEED TO KNOW • Over 4,000 new connections and service pipes installed • Approximately 21,500 services crossed • Only 21 utility strikes • Zero high-risk strikes • Zero lost-time injury accidents THE VERDICT "We were doing work overnight to appease the hospital but also working outside people's houses in a densely populated area to do that, so the fact none of them complained was pretty amazing. We obviously managed our customers pretty well." Mark Newman, Southern Water project manager wwtonline.co.uk | MAY 2018 WET NEWS 13 IN THE MOST DEMANDING ENVIRONMENTS THE VOICE OF WATER CONTRACTORS "…it has become 'anti-social' for any of our managers not to have been trained to the high-level NEBOSH health and safety quali• cation" Karl Simons, Thames Water. P12-13 News+ Contractors stick to 'tried and tested method' to move a watercourse temporarily so Scottish Water's £120M pipeline scheme in Ayrshire can continue. P4 Onsite: Refurbishment Service reservoirs play a key, if sometimes unsung, role in the supply of clean water. One such service reservoir dating back more than a century has received a new lease of life – and despite its technical challenges P7, 9 Insight: Insight Pumps & mixing With the UK sewage sludge sector booming, it is vital that the pump is not treated as a standalone commodity. P21, 23 WET NEWS WATER AND EFFLUENT TREATMENT NEWS Engineering consultancies combine as Jacobs looks to take advantage of £80bn opportunity that the global water sector represents. CH2M Hill bolsters Jacobs' water portfolio SEPTEMBER 2017 Volume 23 • Issue 9 Capture young people's imagination – AECOM Stonbury expands into South-west with acquisition "I joined WSP as I can see it has an appetite for growth in the UK and across the globe..." Mike Woolgar. WSP. P2 U S-based engineering group Jacobs is buying CH2M Hill Companies in a cash and stock deal worth about US$3.27bn (£2.47bn), in- cluding $416M (£314M) of CH2M net debt. The combination unites two industry-leading, innovative companies with complementary capabilities, cultures and relationships, resulting in a di‡ erentiated, end-to-end value proposition for clients and an enhanced platform for sustainable, proˆ table growth. Jacobs has set up an Integration Management O‹ ce (IMO) to oversee the integration of the two organisations. The IMO will be jointly led by senior executives from both groups. With trailing 12-month revenues of'more than £3bn'and a team of 20,000 employees, CH2M is a world-renowned design, engineering and program management ˆ rm, and is a leader in key infrastructure and government service sectors that Jacobs has previously targeted for growth, including water, transportation, environ- mental and nuclear. Applying CH2M's advanced design, technical and program management expertise will enable the combined company to deliver more solutions to more clients in both the government and private sector. Steve Demetriou, Jacobs' chairman and chief executive o‹ cer, said: "By increasing our industry reach and adding to our already extensive skills, this transaction enhances our value to our clients and bolsters Jacobs' position as a premier consulting, design, engi- neering, construction, and operations and maintenance technical services ˆ rm. "CH2M brings to Jacobs a talented, engaged team with capabilities and values that are very complementary to our own. Together, we will bring Jacobs said water represents an approximate' £80bn opportunity, growing 4% to 5% on a compounded annual rate, and CH2M has been identiˆ ed as the top water design ˆ rm in the world. By leveraging CH2M's world-renowned technical expertise in water across Jacobs' global operating platform and strong project delivery skills, the combined company will have a premier global water business with the scale, critical mass and experience needed to more fully capitalise on industry growth trends. Jacobs is a global leader in the resource-constrained £230bn transportation sector, which includes highways, rail, aviation and ports, and is growing 4% to 5% on a compounded annual rate. This sector has large spend and signiˆ cant momentum given population growth and associated need for all trans- portation modes in multiple geographies, particularly in the US,' Australia, New Zealand, South-east Asia, the Middle East'and the UK. Jacobs' premier position in transportation with CH2M is expected to make the combined company an employer of choice, enabling it to better attract and retain talent and address the sector's resource constraints. A ttracting talent through a variety of di‡ erent routes will be key to building capacity in the infra- structure sector and industry must do more to capture the im- agination of young people, in- frastructure provider AECOM has warned. Encouraging more young people to apply for apprentice- ships a£ er completing their GCSEs will be crucial to this prolonged approach. Outreach programmes with schools can be an e‡ ective way to open young people's eyes to a career in the sector, said AECOM. It said that given the UK's ambitious pipeline of infra- structure projects, a key issue for industry over the coming months will be to continue to build capacity so there will be enough skilled professionals to deliver the multitude of schemes when they ramp up from 2018. Vital projects will apply pressure across the sector for years to come, so government and industry must work together to develop the necessary skills. In engineering alone, it is predicted the UK will need over 150,000 people qualiˆ ed at Level 3 or above per year until 2024 (Engineering UK, State of Engineering report 2017). Richard Robinson, chief executive - civil infrastructure, Europe, Middle East, India and Africa at AECOM, said: "Attracting high-quality candi- dates is therefore key. In return we will o‡ er them opportunities to work on some of the UK's most important infra- structure projects, from Crossrail, HS2, Hinckley and the Thames Tideway Tunnel to exciting schemes in the transport, water, built environ- ment, industrial, power and energy sectors." W ater industry specialist contractor Stonbury is expanding its services into the South- west following its acquisition of Kingcombe Aquacare. Kingcombe, which is based in Crewkerne, Somerset, has been in business for more than 30 years and specialises in all aspects of water maintenance, construction, restoration and management. The company operates throughout the South-west and also further aˆ eld throughout the UK. The acquisition ˆ ts with Stonbury's long-term business strategy, as the leading water industry specialist contractor across the UK and Ireland. The move also allows Stonbury's existing services to be expanded into the South-west, providing an excellent geographical base, experienced resource and new skill sets, complementing Stonbury's existing capabilities. S cottish Water must 'futureproof ' assets in the next regulatory price control, according to a document from the Scottish regulator which admits "insu‹ cient attention has been paid (by both regulator and regulated company)" to the maintenance of long-term assets. A document, one of a series from Scottish regulator WICS setting out its thinking for 2021- 27 price control, says: "The price setting process has sought to ensure that the regulated company faces a hard budget constraint over the regulatory control period. While this has been very successful in improving operational e‹ ci- ency, it appears that insu‹ cient attention has been paid (by both regulator and regulated company) to futureprooˆ ng levels of service." The document sets out three ways in which long term maintenance could be approached: continuing with the current approach of spending in line with current need; providing an annual allowance for replacing major assets; or following the example of Welsh Water by reducing outstanding borrowing to free up borrowing capacity for when assets need replacing. It says: "This is not necessarily about spending more now – it is about ensuring that su‹ cient resources are available when Scottish Water needs to replace its assets." In an earlier paper, WICS acknowledged that the need for Scottish Water to invest more in its assets would put "material upwards pressure on prices." In a separate document published this week, WICS set out a base assumption of 2% in® ation for the next price control. The price control will be ˆ nalised in March 2020. globe..." Mike Woolgar. WSP. P2 "Since late 2014, we've been transparent about our plans to pursue an ownership transition, providing sustained access to capital for growth" Jacqueline Hinman, CH2M Need to know Acquisition creates a $15bn global solutions provider Jacobs is a global leader in the resource-constrained £230bn£transportation sector CH2M is a design, engineering and program management • rm, and a leader in key infrastructure and government service sectors The global water sector is growing 4% to 5% on a compounded annual rate more solutions to our clients, give more opportunity to our employees and create increased value for Jacobs' shareholders. In addition, this transaction is consistent with our M&A criteria, accelerating our ability to achieve our ˆ nancial growth targets and propelling Jacobs toward our vision of providing innovative solutions for a more connected, sustainable world." CH2M chairman and CEO' Jacqueline Hinman said: "We are delighted about the prospects of combining CH2M with Jacobs. Since late 2014, we've been transparent about our plans to pursue an ownership transition, providing sustained access to capital for growth." Scottish Water must ' tureproof' asset investment WET News – building the water infrastructure of the future Subscribe FREE today… @wetnews Lively and authoritative, WET News is the only source of specialist information for the contractor, ensuring the industry is kept up-to-date in all areas from concept to commissioning. wwt.events/WET-News WETnews-subscribe-A4ad.indd 1 15/02/2018 14:24 "It was all done at times agreed with them, so a lot of the work around the hospital was done quite late in the evening or overnight." Pre-sterilised system The project team adopted two important strategies to further alleviate the disruption: pre-sterilisation of the new pipework and horizontal direc- tional drilling. "We went away to our suppli- ers and came up with a pre-ster- ilised system where we would reduce the time of the pipe being laid in the ground from seven down to three days," Bird says. "We were able to pre-chlo- rinate the pipe before we took it to site, install the pipe, then flush it again, and check sam- ples were taken. "It sped the process up and wasn't a great cost difference. In fact, we wouldn't have been able to meet the end date if we didn't use this system. We would have been laying a pipe, it would have been in the ground under tests for seven days, and then we'd have had to come back to flush and do the connections." Newman adds: "Because we were working on main arterial roads, we couldn't afford to have the periods where the site was leƒ unattended." Minimising the need for open-cut trenching was also vital to the project's success. At the outset, the project team had planned to rely on open-cut for 60 per cent of the installations and directional drilling for 40 per cent, but Bird says: "We actually turned that around to do 85 to 90 per cent directional drilling. "It allows you to only open- cut two areas: a launch and a reception area. It allowed us to be less intrusive and have less impact on the residents. Because you've not got 100m of open trench down the road, you can get the bays where people were parking along the con- trolled parking zone of Gilling- ham back in quicker." As Newman says, the advan- tages were clear: "Less excava- tion, on site for less, less disrup- tion for customers." Such methods not only allowed the team to finish slightly ahead of deadline in November last year and within budget but also brought ful- some praise from the community. Martin Morris, Medway Council's traffic manager, said the working arrangements rep- resented "a model to be used in other areas or indeed again in Medway", while Jess Scott, Medway Maritime Hospital's emergency planning and busi- ness continuity manager, said in an email to Clancy Docwra that they were "very apprecia- tive of all your staff being so attentive to the needs of our services". Efforts to win over the local community did not end when the work was completed. "We donated £1,000 to all the schools we worked near," Bird says. "We felt at the end of the project, as Clancy Docwra, that we'd caused them some disruption – not major disrup- tion, but we felt we could give something back for the commu- nity. We also donated £1,000 to the Medway Maritime Hospital." That money was used for the hospital's Part and Parcel pro- ject, which ensured that every patient in the hospital on Christmas Day would receive a present. "Around 12 of us went up to help wrap the presents – we spent the day wrapping pre- sents for them to be put into stockings," Bird says. "I think there were 750 stockings done in the end." Newman described public relations as a "major success" of the project, saying: "With all the customer letters we sent out, there was a less than 1 per cent contact rate. "We were working in areas that had the potential to cause a lot of traffic disruption, so that was brilliant." TECHKNOW Horizontal directional drilling (HDD), sometimes known as horizontal boring, essentially involves three stages, with a drilling fluid pumped down the bore to the drill head or reaming tool throughout. • An initial small diameter pilot bore is drilled from a launch to a reception pit • A back reamer, which is connected to the drill rods installed during the pilot boring, is then used to increase the size of the pilot bore. This can be carried out multiple times depending on the size of the hole required • The pipe is then pulled back through the hole for installation A wireless pressure testing system that gives you the reassurance of precise readings, a secure, searchable database and evidence traceability at your fingertips. Evidence Traceability Guaranteed Compliance Save Time & Reduce Error Android/ iOS App Cloud based Dashboard Digital Pressure Tester A Product By info@stevevick.com +44 (0) 1225 864 864 stevevick.com

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