Black & Veatch Project For Thames Water Wins London's Highest Civil Engineering Honor

Black & Veatch, a leading global engineering, consulting and construction company, has won two categories of the Institution of Civil Engineers’ (ICE) London Merit Awards, the city's highest honor for civil engineering excellence.

Black & Veatch is principal contractor on the Hampton Advanced Water Treatment Work (AWTW) Rapid Gravity Filtration (RGF) Remodelling Project, and is also responsible for detailed design, construction and commissioning services.

The works supplies one-third of London’s drinking water; the upgrade project was awarded both the ICE London Merit Award for Conservation and the ICE London Merit Award for the Greatest Contribution to London. The London Merit Awards celebrate outstanding civil engineering achievement, innovation and ingenuity by companies, organizations and individuals in London.

“Receiving these awards from a highly accredited body such as the ICE is recognition of the commitment, cooperation, and close working relationship between the team, the client and other stakeholders,” said Andrew Greenway, Contracts Manager for Black & Veatch.

Robert Sharpe, chair of the judging panel commented, “The recipients of the ICE London Merit Awards 2009 have excelled in delivering projects which combine a commitment to innovation, creativity and social value with a culture of safety and sustainability. I congratulate them all for demonstrating the important contribution that civil engineers make to London.”

Greenway observed that, “Sustainability is one of the key features of the Hampton RGF Remodelling Project. The remodelling of 70-year-old filters, rather than adopting the original new build solution, significantly reduced the environmental impacts associated with the construction of a new plant of this capacity.”

Other aspects of the work which reduced the project’s environmental impact included harvesting and chipping of 14 kilometers of unplasticised polyvinyl chloride piping and 92,000 polypropylene nozzles for reuse in the plastics industry and 800-tons of waste concrete that was crushed and reused as hardcore in construction.

Mark Bulpett, Thames Water Project Manager said, “Working closely with Thames Water Engineering and Operations, Black & Veatch delivered the project under budget and ahead of program, with minimal interruption to works production. It was a brilliant effort by all.”

While undertaking the circa £21.8 million Thames Water project, Black & Veatch is ensuring its work does not interrupt potable water supplies. Before remodeling the existing filters and infrastructure to modern standards, the filters needed to be backwashed every day to remove accumulated debris. With the new improved filter design and enhanced backwashing capability, this requirement has been extended to two days or longer. These improved run times mean the operational energy use of the refurbished plant also has been enhanced.

Additionally, the project has an exemplary health and safety record, with no reportable accidents in over 400,000 man hours worked. The award was presented to the Hampton AWTW team by Alice Bhandhukravi, BBC London news reporter and presenter, and Robert Sharpe, chairman of ICE London, at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden.

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Robbins EPB Surpasses Records on New Delhi Metro

In February 2009, one of two Robbins EPBs boring India’s New Delhi Metro conquered a new feat. The machine achieved a weekly advance rate of 168 rings, or 202 m (663 ft)—the highest advance rate amongst any of the 14 TBMs used on the metro project.

Two 6.52 m (21.4 ft) diameter Robbins EPBs were commissioned to bore the BC-16 contract of the New Delhi Metro Extension Project, Phase II. The Continental Engineering Corporation (CEC)/Soma JV is excavating the twin tunnels, which will join Delhi’s Udyog Bhawan and Jor Bagh areas. “Everyone at CEC is very pleased, and appreciated the performance of the machines,” said Kapil Bhati, General Manager-Operations of the Robbins India office in New Delhi.

The two machines excavated parallel 2.0 km (1.2 mi) tunnels, breaking through into an intermediate cut and cover station at the 1 kilometer mark. The record-setting machine finished its final 1.0 km (0.6 mi section) on March 5, 2009.

The second machine has just been launched on its final section and is scheduled for a final breakthrough in May 2009. Maximum advance rates for this machine have also been very good, topping out at 142 m (466 ft) per week.

Approximately 16 km (10 mi) of TBM drives are involved in Phase II of the project, with about 30 km (19 mi) of underground works in total including cut and cover stations. The project is on a tight schedule, which calls for all tunneling to be complete by December 2009, in advance of the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The games will be hosted in New Delhi and are expected to bring 5.5 million visitors to the city.

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