The Project

To separate the services for the living accommodation from the existing supplies with connections to the main camp and provide independent supplies to the living accommodation which included the following.

Foul drainage separation
• Construction of pump station
• Supply and Installation of Chemical Dosing Unit
• Rising main construction offsite = 3,162 linear meters of 180mm
• Foul water sewers construction onsite – 477 linear meters of 225mm
• Construction of 19 new manholes

Electrical mains and services separation
• LV network cable installation – 1,500 linear meters 300mm/185mm/95mm
• New service supplies and meters to existing properties – 175
• New HV substation
• HV off site circuit installation 1,540 linear meters 300mmTriplex

Water separation
• Water main construction off site – 1,690 linear meters
• Connections and disconnections for separation to the existing CI network– 7 No
• Installation of PRV, Meter and None return Valve inc construction of new chambers

Challenges

All properties were accommodated with residents which required full coordination of power outages timed with new meter installation and existing meter removal

Numerous existing unchartered utilities of many differing ages and materials were laid previously in private land with little or no requirement for recording.

Added risk of buried munitions possible still live.

Traffic management and programming of the local network considering the need for access to the camp and provide a plan for the removal if a diversion was required on the route for adjacent networks.

Unknown buried asbestos during deep excavations was identified during our deep drainage works.

How We Overcame the Challenges

Replacement electrical connections to the existing properties 175 were co-ordinated with the customers to include a loss of supply whilst the meter replacements and transfers of the supplies were completed. This was completed by having dedicated customer liaison staff in communication with the residents constantly to ensure that the project was completed as efficiently as possible. To ensure production was maintained, we needed to keep reserve works available if the situation arose with customers not committing to attendance.

Our Doocey way policy of using the Genny and Cat locating equipment, marking up of the services and no machine dig zones and our due diligence with hand digging to locate uncharted services, marking and identifying underground services worked particularly well and all excavations were completed without damage or interruption to existing supplies.

All excavations were carried out using a metal detector in addition to our Doocey way. We identified one area where munitions had been buried which luckily were not live. We built relationships with representatives of the armed forces whom were readily available to give assistance if required.

The installation of the off site works was completed with the use of our Directional Drill division. This ensured that the local network and access to the camp was maintained with limited disruption and reduced the time for traffic network interruption limiting the amount of requirement for excavation, this also meant that if the need arose for the route to be used as a diversion for the local network, we were able to demobilise within a few hours.

Upon unearthing of the suspected material, we immediately quarantined the area and set an exclusion zone, all works in the area ceased whilst we awaited sample taking and results from our specialist contractor. Once the results were achieved we successfully continued to remove the material from site in a controlled environment in a safe manner working alongside our specialist contractor.