Britain’s largest water engineering project for 20 years, Lee Tunnel, delivered by Morgan Sindall, as part of the MVB joint venture with VINCI Construction Grands Projects and Bachy Soletanche.
The Project
The £635m project involved the construction of a four-mile long tunnel to prevent sewage discharges from the largest sewer overflow point at Abbey Mills Pumping Station in Stratford, East London, into the River Lee.
The tunnel is seven metres in diameter, equivalent to the width of three London buses, and will stop over 16 million tonnes of sewage, mixed with rainwater, overflowing into the river from the Victorian sewer network when it becomes overloaded. The tunnel will store, then transfer, sewage to Beckton Sewage Treatment Works, expanded to deal with the increased treatment volumes.
The first of two planned tunnels, The Lee Tunnel, marks a massive step forward to improve the quality of London’s rivers and is an essential part of providing the capital with a 21st century sewerage system. The project included five shafts, up to 75 metres deep and tunnelling work began in 2012 to meet the required completion date of 2015.
Glenfield Invicta Valves - AVK Engineering Site Solution
Glenfield Invicta were awarded the contract to supply and install 19-off actuated penstocks and 12-off flap valves at the Abbey Mills site and the Beckton WWTW site. The flap valve and penstocks ranged in size from 3m square opening up to 4.8m wide x 5.2m deep.
The total value of the contract, over £1m , to supply and install was scheduled to be carried out over a 18-month period. A quantity of 14 penstocks and 12 flap valves were installed into new build civil works and the remaining 5 penstocks were installed into existing installations.
Several site surveys were carried out to establish the actual dimensions of the old installations and to compare with the original Thames Water drawings.
These surveys required confined space entry into the chambers and wading in the media up to waste height. With the majority of the penstocks and flap valves installed and commissioned the remaining 5 penstocks, to be installed into original chambers, were installed over the Christmas period and the last and largest penstock, installed in January 2016.
A cut above....
The experienced and highly skilled Glenfield Invicta engineers and project management discussed over 100 drawings with the MVB engineering and design team to decipher and agree the most suitable engineering solution for design and install of penstocks up to a massive 4.8m x 5.2m. Glenfield Invicta's professionalism in submission of associated RAMS (Risk Assessment Method Statements), support from the supply chain, presentations to the MVB senior engineering and procurement management teams secured the successful bid to gain participation in the biggest UK water project for over 20 years. The overall project management excellence and expertise, from concept to completion, was the differentiator between Invicta Valves and the competition.
Contact Paul Boyden to discuss your project.
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