By Ashley Karen
£8.5M sewer scheme of Thames Water has used open cut trenching and micro-tunnelling to tackle flooding in Gloucestershire.
A Joint Venture between Kier and Clancy, is delivering the project for the Thames Water Infrastructure Alliance. KCD is applying techniques such as micro-tunnelling on the 3.8km scheme, which contains the installation of 1,800 individual sections of pipe among Chesterton and Shorncote, and the establishment of a new pumping station.
With new houses being constructed in Cirencester, and more people working remote, the project has the purpose to improve wastewater capacity and assist stop similar flooding problems that impacted the Cotswolds this year.
Neil Titchener, Thames Water’s head of major projects stated: “This is a big investment by Thames Water that will help protect homes and the environment in the Cotswolds from the kind of weather-related sewer flooding we saw earlier this year.”
He also asserted: “By increasing capacity, our network will be able to handle much larger volumes of water. Thanks to a combination of innovation and collaboration, we have overcome many challenges, and are on course to finish ahead of schedule this autumn.”
Some of the problems and challenges presented by the unique characteristics of the landscape comprise facing with high groundwater levels in the Cotswold Water Park.
In addition, engineers have dug out tonnes of rock, navigated current utilities and infrastructure – containing high pressure gas mains – and tunneled under roads.
“The area has a high-water table, so we’ve put in well points for each 500m of trench,” said KCD head of developer services Ian Thompson.
He added: “Navigating existing utilities and infrastructure has also been important. We’ve used a combination of open cut trenching across fields and then microtunnelling under the carriageway and high-pressure gas mains.”
“Microtunnelling is a trenchless technique for pipe installation, which has allowed us to minimize disruption. It’s important to us that the project’s construction has as little impact as possible,” declared Thompson.
