With operations across the UK and Ireland and employing over 500 people, leading building and civil engineering contractor Farrans Construction has significant experience of working on projects of all sizes across a wide range of sectors.
Farrans is part of the Northstone Group which in turn is wholly owned by CRH plc, the global building materials group. The civil engineering division of Farrans operates in five key sectors of Roads and Bridges, Water, Marine, Renewables and Horizon.
This issue focuses on Farrans activity in the Water sector where the company has delivered high profile projects across Ireland and the UK. It is currently working for a number of water companies including Irish Water, Northern Ireland Water, Anglian Water and Affinity Water.
Ringsend Water Treatment Plant
Celtic Anglian Water, Farrans & TES (FAcT3 Consortium) have secured the first of four major upgrade contracts to enhance the level of treatment in the existing secondary treatment tanks at the Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant serving the greater Dublin area.
Celtic Anglian Water, the existing operator of the Ringsend WwTP, will work with established partners Farrans Construction & TES Technologies to upgrade the existing secondary treatment stage at the Ringsend plant, which will include the upgrade of 16 of the existing secondary treatment tanks to enhance capacity. The upgrade will retrofit advanced process treatment technology into the secondary treatment stage providing an enhanced level of treatment within the existing infrastructure.
This is the first of four contracts to retrofit the secondary treatment tanks at the plant with Aerobic Granular Sludge (AGS) Technology. The overall upgrade project will deliver, on a phased basis, the capacity to treat the wastewater for a population equivalent of 2.4 million while achieving the standards of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive.
Works on this contract have commenced and will take approximately 12 months to complete.
Strategic Pipeline Alliance
The Strategic Pipeline Alliance (SPA) is an alliance of Anglian Water (AW), Farrans, Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB), Costain and Jacobs who are contracted to deliver resilience outputs in accordance with AW’s Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP) for the AMP 7 period. This will be achieved by the engineering, integration and assembly of a series of interconnected pipelines which will enable AW to move water from areas with surplus water, to areas which are in deficit, making the east of England resilient to drought and securing water supplies for future generations. The project will have the added benefit of removing customers from a single source of supply.
The interconnected pipelines will require several Break Tanks and Pumping Stations at key locations to ensure water can be moved efficiently. The pipelines, when finished, will be longer than the current HS2 project, nearing 500km in length.
The SPA is an early adopter of the Project 13 principles and have set the following at its core;
- Full Alignment with AW Customer Outcomes
- Back to Back arrangement with AW Business Plan
- Top Down Commercial Model (Reward for outperformance)
- Supply Chain Eco-System
- Digital Transformation
- Best for Task for Programme
Numerous projects are progressing through the planning approvals process with full Environmental Impact Assessments being undertaken to ensure impacts on the environment are minimised. Ground investigation works are onsite on several projects to enable detailed engineering and integration works to be carried out.
Works onsite are expected to commence in summer 2021 and are due to be completed by the end of the current AMP.
Northumbrian Water, Essex and Suffolk Water
Essex & Suffolk Water (ESW), a trading division of Northumbrian Water Limited (NWL), have appointed a joint venture between Farrans and TES on a £9.6m contract within the existing Hanningfield water treatment works (WTW). The WTW treats up to 235 Ml/d of water from Hanningfield Reservoir for drinking water supply for around 540,000 homes in the Essex area.
The two-year project, which began on site in August 2020, will involve the design, construction and commissioning of two new wash water tanks, a new pumping station and the refurbishment of the existing two wash water tanks and pumping station.
Work also includes process pipework, sludge connections and diversions, access roads and hard standings, emergency lagoon structure and storm water attenuation tank.
To date Farrans has completed the bulk excavation for the pumping station structure, installed 35nr x 24.5m CFA piles for the base and commenced reinforced concrete works to PS2. Temporary works designed for open cut excavations, sheet pile wall and piling platforms have been completed as part of the geotechnical design.
Work will complete in August 2022.
