Ashton-Under-Lyne Wastewater Treatment Works

 A new £35M Waste Water Treatment Works to serve a population of over 46,000 people and improve the water quality of the River Tame. The scheme comprised a complete works from inlet to outfall constructed on a narrow strip of land bounded by the River Tame to the west and south, Peak Forest Canal to the east and a railway line to the north.

 

Completed Ashton-Under-Lyne WwTW

 A major engineering project which provided essential infrastructure and significant environmental benefits, GHA Livigunn were appointed Design Consultants by KMI+. The project was delivered by an integrated team which worked in a collaborative manner to generate innovative structural engineering solutions which resulted in a saving of over £2.1M with the project reaching completion 10 months ahead of schedule.

“I was really impressed with the site and the fact that the relationships between everyone involved had worked so well in delivering a first class outcome. You’ve definitely set the benchmark for any future capital projects.”

Garry Edwardson
 United Utilities Process Operations Director

The first challenge faced by the team was how to stabilise the canal embankment which was in poor condition and exhibited signs of previous breaches. This was achieved by installing a temporary steel sheet pile cut off wall which enabled excavations for the new works to commence. In the final condition excavated material was used to form a berm and stabilise the embankment before the sheets were pulled out.

 The ASP structure is a 3 lane insitu concrete structure 40m x 40m on plan designed using finite element methods, the 7m high walls taking the elegant form  of  a 450mm thick propped cantilever wall with 32mm dia. stainless steel tie bars, an advanced structural engineering solution using materials more commonplace on a city centre office development than a wastewater treatment works. This solution saved more than 800m³ of concrete and more than 100 tonnes of rebar when compared with a traditional cantilever design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Complex RC Inlet Works Structure                                 ASP Propped Cantilevers with Stainless Steel
                                                                                                                                                                  Tie Bars

As well as the direct savings in materials and embedded carbon dioxide from the above design solutions, an ecological study at the site resulted in over 260 newts and 160 frogs (including the endangered Great Crested Newt) being transported to a newly constructed habitat, affectionately named ‘Newt World’. This was constructed on adjacent redundant land using surplus excavated material from the treatment works. The environmental benefits of this approach were enormous, with 40,000m³ of soil retained onsite and 5,700 HGV vehicle movements eliminated (equivalent to 700 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions).

-End-

For further information please contact Charlotte Johnson on 0161 491 4600
email: charlotte.johnson@ghalivigunn.com