Sutton & East Surrey Water to upgrade UK water plant

Water supply company Sutton & East Surrey Water (SESW) has selected consultancy firm Mott MacDonald to upgrade the Woodmansterne water treatment works in Surrey, UK.

The company wishes to deliver around 50ml/d of treated water into the supply network in order to supply the regional population of 655,000.

The Woodmansterne water treatment works, constructed in 1907, currently has a capacity of 45ml/d.

It collects raw water from the chalk aquifer through boreholes and softens it to remove dissolved minerals, while reducing the amount of soap and detergents needed and minimising kettle and shower head scaling.

The plant carries out partial aeration, partial pellet reactor softening, rapid gravity filtration and disinfection.

The first stage of three stages of the project includes investigative work, establishing the parts of the plant that need refurbishment, expansion or replacement in order to achieve the needed 50ml/d works flow.

The consultancy will assess the condition and performance of all civil, mechanical and electrical infrastructure, and also evaluate options against cost, risk, constructability, carbon, operability, resilience and security.

In the second stage, Mott MacDonald will develop a preferred option, while the third stage involves preparing documentation for tender and construction.

Mott MacDonald project director David Thomas said that the company will use a building information modelling (BIM) delivery process from the outset of the project.

"This has proven highly successful with our other clients and has led to cost savings in design and procurement, particularly through the efficient capture and transfer of data," Thomas said.

"We’ll be following these processes again with SESW, where the BIM journey has already commenced with a full terrestrial LiDAR survey of the entire site."