22/09/09
London’s water system upgrades with Weholite
The UK's largest water and wastewater services company is upgrading its process system to improve the drinking water supply to more than 1.1 million residents across London and the Thames Valley.
Thames Water has invested £11.3million in overhauling and upgrading the drinking water processing system on its site at Walton-on-Thames in Surrey. The project, which will allow an extra 55 mega litres of water through the system each day, will use leading water management solutions provider, Asset International Ltd to provide their Weholite high density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes for use in the bulk recycle pipeline.
Engineering, consulting and construction company, Black & Veatch, opted for the Weholite pipes manufactured by Asset. Black & Veatch's site manager, Max Turnbull, said: "Asset's Weholite pipes are lightweight and therefore are easy to handle, which saves us time and money that would have been spent on heavy lifting equipment when laying the pipes."
The current pipe system at the site distributes 80 mega litres of water a day to London and the Thames Valley, the new larger 1.2 metre diameter pipes will allow the water treatment works to provide 135 mega litres of water on an average day and 165 mega litres at peak times.
Weholite has been proven to have a lower carbon footprint than many other traditional pipe materials thanks to a number of factors including its UK manufacture and its lightness, which results in reduced transport costs and much less requirement for heavy-lifting machinery on site for installation.
Project manager at Thames Water, Mark Bulpett, said: "Thames Water has successfully worked with Asset on a number of previous projects. On projects such as this we always look for the pipework to be a high quality product that is cost effective and right for the job.
"Plastic pipes are lightweight so they remove a number of health and safety issues when it comes to handling them and for us that is a definite bonus."
Weholite pipes are extremely versatile which allows them to be easily managed on site as slots are inserted simply into the plastic for quick placement.
Managing director at Asset International, Simon Thomas, said: "We are delighted that Thames Water and Black & Veatch chose our Weholite pipes to complete their project at Walton-on-Thames.
"We have successfully completed around 10 drinking water projects across the UK over the last three years. Working with the major water companies, including Thames Water, Wessex Water, Anglian Water, Welsh Water and Scottish Water, has given us experience of the industry, an insight into site conditions and into what both the water companies and contractors are looking for.
"The Weholite system is becoming the product of choice for new projects and upgrades within the water industry thanks to its high quality, sustainability and design in value engineering aspects."
For more information about Weholite please call Asset International 01633 273081 or visit www.weholite.co.uk
