This award will be presented to companies demonstrating their key roles in successful new installations of cables, ducts or pipelines using trenchless techniques.
Other category finalists can be found here https://www.ukstt.org.uk/2024-finalists/
The finalists for the New Installation – Large Project award are:
PETER MCCORMACK & SONS / GALLIFORD TRY / SOUTH WEST WATER
Exmouth 900mm 800m Sea Outfall
Successful Project Management of this challenging outfall relied on the project team (South West Water, Galliford Try & Peter McCormack & Sons) to find a solution to deliver a sea outfall during the winter on one of the busiest holiday parks in the UK, which included maintaining access to:
• Holiday & leisure facilities
• Park accommodation & owners
• Maintenance crews
• Pumping station
• Planned civils works
• Existing utilities infrastructure
• Sandy bay beach & coastal path
Teamwork was essential to formulate a plan to minimise the impact on this blue beach site and the surrounding local community.
That teamwork required us to provide a solution never attempted in the UK.
The team’s plan was to forward ream a 48” bore from the car park of the holiday park 800m out to sea.
The HDD Rig required to complete this was a 500T American Augers SR1100 the only one of its size in the UK. The pipe would then be welded & pressure tested on shore and pushed into the bore.
On Time Delivery was one of the biggest challenges to the project. The park has a winter shutdown with only day access for a 3-month period. 24 hours working 7 days per week had to be planned to meet the challenging programme equating to 15,000-man hours and 8 months normal working hours.
The project was delivered ahead of schedule and with a keen eye on cost control and was within budget.
The collaborative approach ensured the avoidance of any disputes during the project.
The team developed strong relationships with Holiday Park management during the planning and delivery stage resulting in positive written feedback throughout.
Quality of Workmanship was an absolute necessity given the short period for delivery, everything had to be right first time with no room for compromise. This was achieved.
Community Impact & Customer Care drove the planning activities. The team planned the civils & HDD activities to minimise any impact on the community.
Information Management was delivered via several conduits ensuring the public had advance warning and local business disruption was kept to an absolute minimum.
The teams press and communication outlets were busy with:
• Press publications Exmouth journal
• 4-week public consultation under the Marine licence
• Local radio
• Letter drops
• Posters
• Signage at Harbour offices, Devon Cliff’s Park, Coastal footpaths & site compound area
• Community meetings
• Local business briefings
• Field marshals placed during operations to brief public
• Local landowners & farmers
• National trust
• Alastair Tindle (Park Civil Engineer)
• Range warden (live firing)
• Devon Cliffs Holiday park management team
All to ensure that we informed all stakeholders of what we were planning to do. With this strategy we had strong community buy in from a very early stage.
A 13-week winter programme & the technique selection were two extremely challenging areas for the delivery team but the benefits to reduce public impact, disruption to local traffic & transport including the Inconvenience were huge.
Our goal was to build Local relationships confirming what we were doing, when we were doing it and to deliver on that commitment ensuring that we maintained a high standard of communication & customer care.
Only positive communication was received for this project, we set out ambitiously to deliver this in 13 weeks and finished a day ahead of programme.
Legislative Compliance from an offshore and onshore perspective was met. The team worked closely with the EA-Onshore & Marine Management Organisation-Offshore given the proximity of the blue flag beach and the Marine risks associated with this HDD.
The Health & Safety Record of the project was excellent with the safety of the public accessing the coastal footpath adjacent to the works and maintenance operations within the holiday park a great success.
In addition to this, the team worked closely with landowners to agree a route and produced a bespoke temporary works solution which created a Safe Systems of Work for the pipeline to be welded, positioned and placed in readiness for the pipe push.
All this adjacent to the live coastal path and threading through the caravans on the park. There was a 30m height difference to contend with and 5 changes in direction.
CDM Regulations were always adhered to and from the offset a fully integrated site with shared office space reinforced a strong team bond.
Whilst no Street Works Compliance notices were required consideration for all vehicle movements was paramount, the innovation section covers the steps to reduce this significantly.
Choosing a technique that offered Sustainability and made significant efforts to reduce the environmental impact & carbon footprint were a major factor when planning the works.
By forward reaming and pushing the pipe, including the use of a centrifuge in the recycling system significant savings were realised:
• Water Saving (using centrifuge) 68 HGV’s – 3,655 miles
• Water Saving (total losses to sea) 350 HGV’s 18,812 miles
• Bentonite delivery (normal usage) 9 HGV’s – 7,200 miles
• Bentonite delivery (total losses to sea) 46 HGV’s – 18,812 miles
• Bentonite removal (without centrifuge) 102 HGV’s 39,984 miles
• Class 1 HGV mileage saved was 106,451 totalling 575 vehicle movements
• The reduction in HGV movements had a huge time and cost saving and a positive impact on the Roads & Road infrastructure.
• A potential 145 eCO2 saved
• A Bespoke flood barrier system was installed to prevent any fluid escapes entering the nearby blue flag beach
• Zero environmental incidents
Innovation on this project:
• Developed a technique & methodology never attempted in the UK
• Mobilised a 500T American Augers HDD Rig.
• Pipe push 900mm PE 800m into a 48” bore maintaining the pipes integrity.
• Reduce the exposure to marine operations with multi-million-pound savings
• Limiting marine operations also gave surety, helping to exceed customer programme expectations
• Design bespoke forward reamers
• Design staged forward reaming to prevent total losses and the use of over 7000 m3 of bentonite
• Centrifuge in the recycling system to guarantee the re-use of all drilling fluids resulting in 100% recycled slurry
• Intercept the outfall pipe for use of ground water in fluid design
• Spares and a second rig on standby to mitigate any down time
• Use of 2 no. 750 mud pumps to ensure spare on site
• 1 year’s mobilisation planning to ensure the Timely Deployment to site
• Reaming cycles finished short of punch out to prevent drilling fluid losses and effect on the environment
• Innovation delivered a cost effectiveness solution
The total savings by forward reaming and pushing from the shore, plus the use of the centrifuge for recycling are estimated at around Five million pounds
VOLKERTRENCHLESS SOLUTIONS / VISSER & SMIT HANAB / ANGLIAN WATER / HOWLANDS ASSOCIATES / RDS UTILITIES
VolkerTrenchless Solutions – Anglian Water Strategic Pipeline Alliance
VolkerTrenchless Solutions (VTS) is delivering 62 trenchless crossings, involving over 12km of SDR11 pipe (160mm-710mm diameter), as part of Anglian Water’s Strategic Pipeline Alliance (SPA) project.
WHY IT SHOULD WIN: We work to Project 13 principles in an Enterprise environment to plan, mitigate key risks, add value with technical knowledge, and deliver on time a complex programme of works. We use industry leading logistics and safety management to utilise resources efficiently over a huge geographical area, whilst minimising disruption to local communities and keeping staff safe and well, despite the intense drilling programme.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
On-time delivery: The scale of the challenge around ground conditions, planning, archaeological and environmental issues is evident by our drills being restricted to 78% efficiency, even with the mitigating actions we took during ECI. In spite of this, we are currently delivering the crossings on programme. This has been due to the scale of our planning in deploying HDD equipment and resources in a timely manner allowing operations to commence on time.
Cost control: Assessing ground conditions, planning logistics, and derisk ecological constraints during the ECI period allowed us to develop robust plans and high-level budgets which would limit change during delivery. We gave Anglian Water cost and programme surety by populating their risk register.
Now in delivery, we use weekly progress and commercial meetings with the client to discuss early warnings and outstanding issues. We use CEMAR to formally record and track correspondence and actions.
Teamwork and Avoidance and/or management of disputes: We prioritise collaboration in line with Project 13 principles. ECI facilitated joint risk assessment and mitigation. Weekly progress meetings, proactive early warnings, and quarterly 360 feedback from both parties effectively minimise disputes and enhance collaboration.
Figure 2 Pit Bridge
Quality of workmanship: Our technical bureau developed outline designs, spending considerable time on calculations, documentation, and a project management plan to ensure high-quality planning. We jointly agreed on inspection and test plans with the client early, aligning on quality standards. Our sites are often used by Anglian Water as benchmarks for auditing other contractors.
COMMUNITY IMPACT & CUSTOMER CARE
Advance warning/publicity: We work in line with the client’s customer strategy, ensuring a consistent approach across all Enterprise activities. We attend council and resident meetings to provide advance warning and answer any queries, especially for areas with 24-hour works.
Business consultations, communications, information management: Early engagement with third-party asset owners was crucial, particularly for crossings under highways, rail, and utility lines. VTS prepared compliance documents for standards like Network Rail Civ 044 to prevent project interruptions. Howlands Associates conduct safety checks and highways monitoring, while RDS Utilities managed the track monitoring plan for HDD operations under Network Rail assets, ensuring continuous safety and compliance.
Efficient information management and approvals enhanced collaboration and reduced delays. VTS and SPA shared SharePoint access and trained project and HSEQ teams, streamlining document sharing and approval processes.
Programme management: We used the ECI period to carefully schedule works around known environmental and customer constraints, avoiding peak tourist times and sensitive ecological periods.
Building local relationships: We added social value by contributing equipment to a football club and a flood action group in Pointon, Lincolnshire, which suffered extensive flooding. Donated items included two puddle pumps, sandbags, foil blankets, torches, shovels, and warning signs.
Reducing public impact/inconvenience: We install acoustic barriers and low-level lighting to reduce impacts when working close to residential properties.
Reducing transport disruption: Our longest movement of major plant and equipment has been just five miles due to our careful work scheduling. We eliminated up to 35 daily tanker movements at some sites where we utilised the cathodic protection lines for mud returns.
Figure 3 Night Work
LEGISLATIVE COMPLIANCE
H&S record: Over 125,000 hours worked with zero accidents.
CDM Regs and safe systems of work: All works comply with the CDM Regulations and our ISO 45001 management system. We developed specific safe systems for each drill location, with temporary works undergoing external Cat III checks for safety. QR codes provide quick access to COSHH data sheets, assessments, and visual task sheets, ensuring up-to-date information.
We meticulously planned site setups using 3D models to reduce people-plant interface risks and implemented pedestrian zones with red and green lights and machinery with human form recognition. To manage fatigue risks, we partnered with a software provider to create rotas and balance team wellbeing with meeting programme demands.
Street works: We provide necessary data for client applications to meet all legislative requirements. We comply with Section 81 for road access and the New Roads and Street Works Act for traffic management.
SUSTAINABILITY
Contribution to sustainability and Efforts to reduce the environmental impact of works: We reduced the impact of transporting plant by scheduling drills with a maximum movement of 5km and using a central logistics hub. We use HVO fuel where possible and telematics on generators to optimise fuel consumption and reduce environmental impact.
Our innovative use of cathodic protection lines for mud returns eliminates up to 35 daily tanker movements at some sites, conserving water resources. We planned works around environmental constraints, adjusting the programme for nesting seasons and water vole mitigation.
INNOVATION
Choice of technique and skill to overcome site constraints: We monitored data across geological strata to evaluate tooling performance and wear, improving efficiency and enabling rapid response to changing conditions, maintaining a close relationship with our tooling supplier, SlimDrill. We designed a pipe bridge with a removable centrepiece, allowing drill pipes to pass through while providing a safer platform with hand railings.
Novel application of the chosen technique or equipment: On one particular crossing, we reverted to an intersect drill after experiencing numerous frac outs. Mobilising a second rig, we collaborated with Brownline to install their radar intersect system, integrated with our Gyro steering, allowing precise drilling coordination between the two rigs.
Cost effectiveness and Timely deployment: We used 3D modelling for site planning, telematics to optimise fuel consumption, and QR codes for instant health and safety information. Swiftly adapting to the intersect drill method and mobilising a second rig ensured timely, cost-effective project delivery.
