The last project in a programme of wastewater infrastructure works across Scotland has successfully completed an urban flood prevention scheme that will protect central Lanark and properties in the area from flooding.
The project is being delivered for Scottish Water as part of a joint venture between Binnies, an RSK Group company, and amey. Over the last eight years, amey-binnies has delivered works as a Scottish Water alliance partner for a programme that included 300 projects and a £430 million investment in sewer systems.
The Lanark project has been designed to store rainwater during extreme weather events to prevent flooding. The properties the works were designed to protect had previously been flooded, and the road junction outside had also been historically impacted. The amey-binnies team delivered detailed design and management works, which included the installation of a 13-meter-deep storm water tank with a capacity of 990 m3 and upgrade of the local sewer network, replacing 40 meters of sewer pipes to enable them to hold more water.
Binnies Head of Operations Brian Whyte said: “amey-binnies has now completed the last sewer flooding project to be delivered in the SR15 framework, and we are proud that this work has removed another three properties from Scottish Water’s flooding register and the risk of internal flooding. The project had additional technical considerations, such as the online replacement of sewer pipes and the close proximity of site works to properties.”
Owing to the nature of the sewer upsizing, major over-pumping operations were required to maintain the existing flows while the replacement work was carried out online because of the requirement for the new, upsized pipes to be on the same line and level.
Brian said: “In addition to the online refurbishment of the sewer pipes, the storm water tank was installed below a car park. Owing to the ground conditions of this area, the tank had to be constructed in a top-down methodology by a specialist subcontractor, which was a particular challenge because of the limited available space.”
Scottish Water General Manager Paul Sexton said: “I am delighted to see that the Wellgate project in Lanark has been successfully completed by the amey-binnies alliance. This project will provide valuable protection against flooding for properties nearby, and the team at amey-binnies has done a super job keeping the local community engaged with the project.”
Brian added: “Now complete, the infrastructure will protect the centre of Lanark from internal and external sewer flooding in the event of extreme weather. As we have seen in recent months, extreme weather events are increasingly more common and severe across Scotland, making this kind of infrastructure even more important to protect homes and businesses from floods. The works will not only help the sewer system store more water when under stress but also aid the drainage of water underground.”
