The background
A 350mm diameter sewer which runs through a wooded area on the bank side of a watercourse in County Durham collapsed in March 2021, causing water course pollution. Selwood were contacted by ESH Construction, working on behalf of Northumbrian Water, to provide an emergency mitigation diesel application to prevent further pollution at the site.
This application remained in place for four months and was then changed over to an electrical application, as refueling was challenging due to the location of the pumps.
The repair of the sewer is still only at the planning phase and is expected to not be started till 2024, so Selwood met with ESH and discussed other options that could be carried out to make this long-term project more efficient.
The challenge
The main challenges were the location and terrain of the works site and the ongoing issues with site thefts. The distance we were pumping was around 400m through the woods, so the pipe work needed to be manageable for the installation. 200mm Bauered pipe work was chosen for this purpose.
Selwood’s team would also need to install the new application while the existing application was in place so there was no potential of further pollution.
The solution
Working closely with ESH we came up with a solution of building a temporary pumping station type application, which would run off a hybrid generator and battery pack.
We suggested to ESH that the application should be moved from within the wooded area to the bottom of a field that could be accessed via a purpose-built Haul Road. Although this would mean pumping further in distance, it meant a more suitable application with vastly improved access could be offered to the client.
The result
Changing from the S150 Electrics pump to a submersible NS3171 system in Duty/Standby meant that due to the lower Kilowatts we could replace the 100kva generators with 60kva generators and battery pack.
A major benefit of changing to this application was that the customer would benefit from significant savings on fuel, resulting in a reduced cost and a more environmentally- friendly solution thanks to a reduction in carbon emissions.
The previous application was being refuelled every week and the new application would only need a top up around every eight weeks on average. There was also a cost saving on the client’s labor resources as a result.
John Hopper, ESH Construction: “Due to our close working relationship with Selwood we knew we would between us come up with a solution which would be beneficial to ourselves and our client, Northumbrian Water. As it stands, the system is working brilliantly and preforming as it should which is giving huge cost and C02 emission savings.”
The difference
Selwood have mitigated the initial pollution, then over the course of the works we have provided continuous support and ideas to make this a more cost effective and more efficient running system. Refuelling costs alone have more than halved.
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