A £66 million contract has been signed for the design and construction of an upgrade to an existing sewage works.
Thames Water has announced plans for the upgrade of the Mogden sewage works in Twickenham, west London, with construction firm Kier winning the bid for the work.
Kier will carry out the improvement project to ensure the site can continue meeting the needs of the capital’s growing population, with the project including reconfiguration of the aeration lanes and the replacement of air blowers, pipes and other elements, to increase the capacity of the plant to deal with sewage and make the sludge and digester streams more resilient.
In addition, Thames Water will spend a further £34 million over the course of the next 25 years on upgrading other elements of the site, the third largest sewage works it operates.
Group managing director for Kier Infrastructure Mark Pengelly said: “We have a long history of delivering projects and services for Thames Water and look forward to continuing our relationship with this project.”
He added: ”It is a highly complex and specialised project and the team will be working in a live environment, across multiple locations of the site.”
Mr Pengelly stated that AECOM will be the design partners, having demonstrated a “tried and tested approach” in working with Kier over the previous six years at another Thames Water treatment works, Deephams in Edmonton.
Many of the current installations at Mogwen date from the 1930s, with Thames Water publishing a number of archive photos from the time as it announced the new works. Many of these were donated by deputy chairman at North Brent Flood Working Group John Timms MBE and show the engineers of the day installing valves and digging the tunnels at the site.
Kier and Thames have built a strong relationship, with the construction firm being named as one of the water firm’s £2.6 billion Capital Programmes Framework partners last year.
Thames Water’s capital delivery director Francis Paonessa described the project at Mogden as “essential” to ensure enough sewage capacity for London. He added: “This scheme is just part of a wider investment plan to ensure our sites can continue to provide our essential service to millions of customers across London and the Thames Valley.”
Among the other projects taking place is the Thames Tideway tunnel, which is designed to act as a ‘super sewer’ in order to increase the capacity of the capital’s sewerage system.
Although the subterranean sewage system built in Victorian times was an engineering marvel of its day and helped in the development of London as a great city, it was built to serve a population half as large as it is now. As a result, there are frequent overflows of sewage into the Thames, damaging the water quality of the river.
The new sewer will be in action from 2023 and will run 25 miles from Acton in West London to the treatment works at Beckton in the east of the capital.
Currently, four of the giant tunnelling machines have completed their work, while two more are still digging away as they seek to link up different sections of the sewer.
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