The six projects include:

• New storm water storage at Pudsey Smalewell, Pudsey beginning in October 2023
• Additional storm water storage off Dick Lane, Thornbury, Bradford beginning in January 2024
• New storm water storage at Farnley ring road beginning in January 2024
• Installation of storm water storage at Kent Road, Littlemoor Bottom, Pudsey beginning in February 2024
• Installation of storm water storage at Dale Farm, Drighlington beginning in February 2024
• The creation of a 4.7-hectare integrated constructed wetland at a disused Yorkshire Water site previously earmarked for housing at Hough Side, Pudsey beginning in July 2024

Approximately 18,250m³ of additional storage will be added to the network to slow the flow of heavy or prolonged rainfall, which modelling indicates will reduce the number of storm discharges into Pudsey Beck by more than 20%.

The new integrated constructed wetland at Hough Side will accommodate a minimum 25,000m³ of diluted wastewater from heavy or prolonged rainfall events and will take approximately three years to construct. Plants in a series of cells will treat the diluted wastewater as it travels through the wetland via gravity. Pollutants and nutrients will be naturally broken down and taken up by the plants and bacteria within the wetland. The wastewater will not include solid waste.

Once established, the wetland will also provide a biodiversity net gain and improve the area for local wildlife.

Richard Stuart, director of capital delivery at Yorkshire Water, said: “We are committed to improving water quality in the rivers across our region. One of the key focuses is reducing storm overflows to make a real difference to water quality in our rivers.

“This project is a significant investment in the west Leeds and Bradford areas to improve water quality within Pudsey Beck. The additional storage and wetland we are building into the network will reduce the number of storm overflows significantly into the watercourse and is just part of a £568m capital investment we are making across Yorkshire this year alone.

“While work is being conducted in the area, there may be some traffic disruption and we are working closely with local authority highways departments to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum.

“We know that there is more to be done to tackle storm overflows. We are already working on our largest ever environmental investment as part of our 2025-2030 business plan. The plans, which will be subject to approval by our regulator Ofwat, outline a £1 billion investment to further reduce discharges from overflows to meet the government’s storm overflow reduction plan, including the requirement for coastal bathing waters of an average of two spills per bathing water season by 2035.” The project is a collaboration between Yorkshire Water, Stantec, Kier, Arup, WSP, Mott MacDonald Bentley, Peter Duffy Limited, Galliford Try, Barhale, Tilbury Douglas, Leeds City Council and Bradford Metropolitan District Council.

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When built, the scheme will deliver:

• 150,000 tonnes of rock barrier along the coast to manage erosion and high tides
• Sheet piling along the Lamby Way roundabout
• Maintained earth embankments, and Rock protection for Lamby Way Bridge

And it will:

• Manage the flood risk to 1,116 residential and 72 non-residential properties, plus the Rover Way Gypsy and Traveller site.
• Provide defence against a one-in-200-year severe weather event, including allowing for the effects of climate change.

The scheme will deliver an effective flood defence while minimising impact on wildlife and improving the walking route forming part of the Wales Coastal Path, which links to existing public rights of way.

Cllr Caro Wild, the Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change has welcomed the progress of the scheme, and said: “Cardiff is already starting to feel the effects of our changing climate and as a coastal city flooding has become an increasingly significant risk as sea levels rise and extreme weather events become more frequent.

“Enhancing our coastal flood defences is a key priority, especially in areas where residential properties are potentially at risk.

“Through our One Planet Cardiff strategy, we’re making good process on reducing the Council’s own carbon emissions, ensuring we’re playing our part in limiting global temperature rises, but proactive steps like this scheme on the foreshore and River Rhymney, are also essential if we are to ensure Cardiff is resilient enough to cope in years to come.”

The One Planet Cardiff strategy sets out a range of ways in which Cardiff is moving towards being carbon neutral, including: reducing energy consumption and energy efficiency in council buildings, increasing the supply of renewable energy, shifting to more sustainable and active modes of transport, reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from purchased goods and services, making smarter choices to waste less and recycle more, and increasing opportunities to absorb emissions through green infrastructure and tree planting.

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Leading infrastructure solutions company, Costain, has been awarded three assurance frameworks worth up to £7.15m by Yorkshire Water (YW). The contract is for an initial two-years, with the option to extend for a further two years.

Costain, in joint venture with Arup, has successfully supported YW’s health and safety (H&S) assurance needs through a consultancy framework since 2019. From July 2023, the new award will see environmental and technical assurance frameworks added to the H&S remit.

The frameworks, which run from 2023 to 2025, will see the JV provide project and programme management services, end to end quality and risk services, process safety management and environmental, sustainability and ecology services.

The assurance frameworks will be implemented across YW’s catchment area and will cover Technical, Health & Safety and Environmental works, building on the service already delivered in AMP7.

Gerard Shore, water sector director at Costain commented, “We successfully delivered vital health and safety assurance work for Yorkshire Water across 23 capital delivery partners last year, and we’re delighted by the vote of confidence shown by Yorkshire Water in extending our remit. We’ll use our in-depth knowledge and expertise to help Yorkshire Water meet its needs and continue to deliver exceptional service to its customers.”

Richard Jelfs, contractor HSE manager at Yorkshire Water, said, “We are delighted to continue to work closely with Costain-Arup as we assure against our existing and develop new health, safety and environmental standards and controls within Capital Delivery.”

Catherine Wenger, UKIMEA Water Business Leader, Arup added, “We are pleased to be able to continue our longstanding assurance partnership with Costain and Yorkshire Water into Amp8 sharing national and global best practice.”

Yorkshire Water manages the collection, treatment, distribution and disposal of water in Yorkshire. It supplies around 1.24 billion litres of drinking water each day as well as disposing of approximately one billion litres of wastewater safely back into the environment.

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An intelligent monitoring system has been successfully introduced by Scottish Water across rural locations in the Highlands and Islands, using Internet of Things (IoT) technology to gather essential data that helps keep the water network in Scotland safe.

Using a device developed by CENSIS for M2M Cloud – Scotland’s innovation centre for sensing, imaging, and IoT technologies – Scottish Water can now automatically collect information on the temperature and flow of water in Scottish Water buildings as part of routine quality assurance checks.  Any unusual readings could point towards a potentially harmful bacteria outbreak, including legionella. Until now, the process was carried out manually with employees travelling the country to undertake regular testing.

Working as a supplier to Scottish Water’s Digital Framework partners, Atos, M2M Cloud’s Gemini devices have so far been deployed across all Scottish Water sites in Shetland, Orkney and Islay. The next phase of the roll-out will extend the deployment to a further 300 sites, covering around half of the network. The installation of the smart water monitoring systems forms part of a wider commitment to digital transformation at Scottish Water, led by Atos.

The first of its kind device fits on to the surface of pipes to remotely take temperature readings, notifying building managers if the water system is out of specification. Readings are taken every 10 seconds, looking at minimum and maximum temperatures, as well as detecting any issues with water flow events.

This latest generation of the rechargeable battery-powered device was developed CENSIS for M2M, after receiving grant funding from Scottish Enterprise last year. The device is now capable of operating on both cellular Narrow Band IoT (NB-IoT) and LoRaWAN networks, making the system easier to set up in hard-to-reach areas. The addition of Bluetooth connectivity has cut installation times by one-third.

Chris Butchart, director at M2M Cloud, said: “Water monitoring has typically been a carbon-intensive, resource-heavy process involving engineers taking manual readings monthly. For Scottish Water, the ability to gather that data on a continuous basis will be transformational in terms of the way it operates remote sites and ensures safe conditions are met. To have Scottish Water as the first organisation to use our latest generation device is a huge vote of confidence and we look forward to the next stage of the roll-out.”

M2M Cloud’s system can reduce carbon emissions associated with water monitoring by up to 75% – around 300kgs of CO2 per year for each monitored asset – by removing the need for travel to the site and the necessity to overheat water supplies, which organisations often do to avoid the risk of bacteria outbreaks. Water wastage is also reduced by around 225,000 litres per asset, per year.

The device’s battery can last for up to five years before needing recharged, rather than replaced, and can be charged while the device remains in situ attached to the pipework. It is also the only water safety device to have been awarded IASME Gold level certification – an industry-recognised measure of IoT cyber security.

Monitoring water systems in UK non-domestic buildings is a statutory requirement costing around £140 million per annum, while financial estimates put the healthcare and workplace impact of legionella alone at £1 billion per year across Europe[1]. It is anticipated that the Health and Safety Executive compliance legislation will soon evolve to include remote technology-led monitoring as part of legionella prevention.

Kevin Power, system architect at CENSIS, said: “It is great to see the successful use of a 5G ready IoT device wholly designed and manufactured in Scotland, by one of our biggest utility providers. We have supported M2M Cloud since the early stages of development and the business continues to go from strength to strength. The latest generation of the technology represents a big step forward in terms of ease of connectivity and will support the growing demand from businesses for digital transformation and IoT.”

Archie MacGregor, Property Manager, at Scottish Water added: “The remote temperature monitoring sensors have been a major step forward in enhancing the management of H&S in our building water systems as well as offering significant benefits in reducing journeys to site and related carbon emissions. We are delighted to have M2M and CENSIS working with us in delivering these innovative solutions which completely align with our Strategic Ambitions of Net Zero Emissions and providing Great Value for our customers.”

Innovation Minister Richard Lochhead said: “This is an excellent example of how Internet of Things technology can provide smart solutions to monitor essential data that helps keep the water network in Scotland safe.

“Collecting this information remotely can transform this previously carbon-intensive process and demonstrates the potential for innovations to support our net zero ambitions. The deployment across all Scottish Water sites in Shetland, Orkney and Islay, with plans to extend the roll-out to a further 300 locations, shows the opportunity to scale up this technology.

“Ensuring Scotland can realise the full economic benefits of the digital and data economy is fundamental to the Scottish Government’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation. As a key enabler of sustainable economic growth, digital infrastructure is a critical part of our plans for a fair, green and growing economy.”

[1] Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309771205_The_cost_of_Legionellosis_and_technical_ways_forward

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The AMP8 (2025-2030) programme will see Thames Water continue to invest in its water and wastewater network which serves 15 million people across London and the Thames Valley. The water company is spending £2.3bn on infrastructure improvements through the current AMP7 period (2020-2025).

Civil engineering and infrastructure specialist Barhale will continue to operate under FA1488 covering Lot 1, the Non-Infrastructure framework, and Lot 2, the Infrastructure framework. Lot 1 focuses on capital maintenance and enhancement across many of Thames Water’s own operational sites, and Lot 2 includes new installations and capital maintenance of existing key assets.

Lots 1 and 2 will be the principal delivery route for the AMP8 capital programme.

Thames Water has also confirmed the extension of Barhale’s appointment to FA1495 – Lot 5 of the AMP7 framework – covering the delivery of the water and wastewater AMP7 infrastructure programme across North London.

Activities will include the new installation and replacement of existing trunk and rising mains; pressure management; the inspection of aqueducts, bridges and tunnels; the rehabilitation of sewers, pumping station refurbishment and gravity solutions to maintain asset health and accommodate growth. The programme will also continue work on SUDs and pipeline-related emergency works.

Shane Gorman, Barhale’s Water Director – Southern Region, believes the extension reflects the strong positive relationship between the two businesses and Barhale’s deep understanding and experience of some of Thames Water’s most important assets.

“We are very proud of the work we continue to carry out for Thames Water,” he said. “Water infrastructure across London and the South East presents some unique challenges – not least responding to the huge demand from the country’s most dense poplulation.

“At Barhale, we have fully embraced Thames Water’s collaborative approach which has yielded some impressive benefits under AMP7 already including greater agility in the way we have been able to deploy our teams to react to changing conditions, better utilised and shorter planned outages and swifter programme delivery.

“We look forward to continuing to work closely with Thames Water through the AMP8 period.”

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Biogas is produced as a by-product of Yorkshire Water’s sewage wastewater treatment processes and can be upgraded to separate methane from the other component gases. This upgraded biogas is called ‘biomethane’ or ‘renewable natural gas’.

As part of the deal, biomethane gas to grid plants will be designed, developed and operated at the two sites. The biomethane will then be injected into the local gas network via underground pipelines and used as a renewable fuel, either in vehicles, homes or industry.

Once operational, the plants shall produce roughly 125GWh of biomethane annually, enough to heat more than 10,000 homes.

Tom Hall, head of bioresources at Yorkshire Water, said: “We’re excited to be working alongside SGN Commercial Services and Centrica Energy Trading to make best use of the biogas Yorkshire Water produces through sewage treatment.

“We already benefit from biogas-fuelled renewable energy generation, but this project demonstrates our commitment to using markets to improve our operational efficiency, reduce customer bills and facilitate carbon emissions reductions in the wider economy.”

It is hoped the biomethane gas to grid plants will be operational at Knostrop and Blackburn Meadows in early 2025.

SGN’s business development director Marcus Hunt said: “SGN is committed to delivering a greener gas grid and continuing to be at the forefront of providing heat to UK homes and businesses.

“We’re delighted to announce this partnership with Yorkshire Water – it adds to our ambition to increase biomethane injection into the gas network to provide local customers with green gas and support decarbonisation plans.” Kristian Gjerløv-Juel, director for renewable energy trading and optimisation at Centrica Energy Trading commented: “This agreement marks an important milestone for Centrica’s biomethane activities in the UK. Having recently expanded our capabilities to handle trading, nomination, and transportation of green gas in the UK market, we’re working to accelerate biomethane production across Europe and using our capabilities to help businesses deliver on their green procurement strategies and reduce emissions.”

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The strategically important Thames Lee Tunnel (TLT) was built between 1955 and 1959 to carry water from the River Thames at Hampton Water Works to Lockwood Pumping Station at the Lee Valley Reservoir Chain. The 19-mile (31 km) tunnel, runs at a depth of 68 to 190 feet (21 to 58 m) and passes through 24 access shafts of 12 feet (3.7 m) diameter. It was designed to transfer 120 million imperial gallons (550 megalitres) of water per day.

The contract will see civil engineering and infrastructure specialist Barhale reinforce a 70 metre length of the 102-inch (2.6 m) diameter concrete-lined tunnel water main where it runs across the route of HS2 in North London.

The location of the works will necessitate an unusually long concrete pump – 800m horizontal plus the almost 50 metre depth of the Barrow Hill shaft at Primrose Hill – to the site of the works. Barhale has been working with Caumford to design a bespoke pumping solution.

Shane Gorman, Barhale’s Water Director – Southern Region, highlighted the importance of the Thames Lee Tunnel as part of London’s water infrastructure.

“The need for the TLT was identified both to address drought conditions and to meet the requirements of new housing and development in East London after the Second World War,” he said. “For more than sixty years it has played an essential role transporting water across the capital and these works are an important measure to reinforce a key part of London’s water distribution network.

“The section we are working on offers some additional challenges: the actual site of the relining is an unusually long distance from an access shaft and the levels of service and utility congestion in Camden means that we can’t sink boreholes. So designing a concrete-pumping solution that will work over more than half a mile has been a key focus.

“We have worked closely with Thames Water on the design and scheduling of this project. Such is the strategic importance of the Thames Lee Tunnel that outages can only be scheduled for certain times of the year and they are contingent upon general storage levels across the rest of the network.

“We have now identified a suitable window and look forward to successful completion in February 2024.”

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Situated in Northamptonshire, Boughton House dates back to 1528 when it was once the home of the Montagu family who took style inspiration from the French, leading to the House being coined the ‘English Versailles’. In the 20^th century it became home to the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry who wished to preserve this national treasure.

Over the last three decades, Buccleuch has been working to uncover long lost waterways and lakes dating back over 300 years. As part of this, Land & Water will be restoring Star Pond which earnt its name through its original star shape. Having become built up with silt, the wet civil engineering firm will be carrying out dredging works as well as ensuring the pond cascades back to link with other estate waterways and the River Ise.

Roger Baines, Contracts Manager at Land & Water, said: “We are delighted to be working at another historical landscape and preserving the future of the waterways at Boughton House.

“As well as the works to return Star Pond to its former glory, we will also be installing an aquatic channel to enable fish and other aquatic life to easily travel down to the River Ise, as well as to support flood protection.

“The environment is front and centre of all that we do at Land & Water and as part of this we want to ensure that we are supporting the creation of habitats to increase biodiversity.”

David Cullum, Parks and Gardens Manager at Boughton Estate says: “In their heyday, the gardens were considered to be among the largest and finest in the country and in the last 30 years, considerable work has taken place to restore various features. It is an absolute privilege to be involved in this next exciting step of this journey and the restoration of Star Pond.”

“Everything we do should have a positive impact on the environment, whether that be designed or natural. We are excited to be able to do both with the restoration of Star Pond.”

Land & Water is due to be working at Boughton House until the end of summer. This coincides with another historical project at World Heritage Site, Blenheim Palace, to remove 300,000m3 of silt from Queen Pool to preserve the legacy of the waterway for years to come.

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OnSite Pipelines will be working with Anglian Water Asset Delivery, and the other 7 partner organisations to assist in the delivery of over 700 projects. These are all designed to improve and expand the Anglian Water network to better serve existing customers.

OnSite Pipelines’ main role within the @one Alliance will consist of the Infra program area, with a remaining works budget of approximately £200m for Asset Management Period (AMP) 7 and a further prediction of approximately £350m for AMP8. The successful partners will undertake mains laying works across all the Anglian Water region, with a focus on butt/electro fusion welding pipe, traditional push fit pipe methods, installation of fittings, backfill, open-cut road crossing and commissioning.

“We are excited to join the @one Alliance and their partners to assist in contributing to the delivery of these important projects for Anglian Water’s customers,” said Adrian Brown, Operations Director at OnSite Pipelines. “Our expertise in main laying works will enable us to work with the @one Alliance and Anglian Water to deliver these projects efficiently and effectively.”

The @one Alliance is currently embarking on a £1.2 billion program of work and is almost halfway through its current five-year AMP7. The @one Alliance partners work together to deliver complex programs of work, bringing specialised knowledge and expertise to deliver projects in the most efficient way possible.

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The firm, which carries out work at the dock and on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal each year as part of an ongoing framework with the Canal & River Trust, will be carrying out backhoe dredging to remove approximately 5,000m3 of silt in order to improve navigation for vessels in the dock. The silt will then be spread onto local agricultural land as part of Land & Water’s environmental commitment as it prioritises enhancing local havens for wildlife and increasing biodiversity.

Lucy Lee, Contracts Manager at Land & Water, says: “The lack of rainfall and increasing temperatures in the UK has led to a lot of sediment building up across a range of docks and canals, including at Gloucester Dock.

“Up until April, the Land & Water team will be using its specialist equipment to increase the depth of the waterway in areas that require improvement in order to restore the navigation channel through the docks and free boats trapped by silt.

“We are proud to be continuing our work with the Canal & River Trust to improve the UK’s network of waterways and to maintain Gloucester Dock and the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal.”

Land & Water has held a framework contract with the Canal & River Trust for over 20 years and has been working at Gloucester Dock to carry out a range of services including water injection dredging in the east channel of the River Severn in Gloucester and debris clearance on Worcester Bridge.

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