“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success!” – Alexander Graham Bell.

When connecting to the mains sewer most of the work has actually taken place before machinery even arrives on site, a considerable amount of pre-planning takes place to enable a productive and smooth installation. The administration element of the Section 50 and Section 106 application initially take place months before the team sets foot on site.

As a matter of standard protocol the first stage of the process is for one of our contracts managers to attend site, from here we can identify what the site needs to achieve compliance with the 2020 General Binding Rules. More often than not a connection to mains sewer is mentioned when either upgrading the existing wastewater system or a new development/ site expansion, this was the case for one site we recently assisted in Northumberland.

For this site the Section 106 application was the easiest of the administrative process, the connection point was easily identified in the local village. The connection point was within a cul-de-sac on the outskirts over the village some distance away from the caravan site.

Therefore in total there was in excess of 1,500 metres of new outfall to be installed and this requirement meant that a new pump station needed to be installed as a gravity outfall could not be achieved at a workable level.

Our solution was to install a new concrete ring pump station that was 2.4m diameter x 4m deep. Prior to the connection point the flow of the pumped pipework need to be slowed down at a demarcation chamber before being gravity fed into the mains sewer.

For this application there were a number of different sections of the highway that were potentially going to be impacted by the drainage works due to take place. To ensure that our proposal was workable with minimal disruption, a meeting between our contracts manager, traffic management and the council took place prior to our start on site.

One stretch of the works was to be carried out on a busy section of the highway therefore it was determined that during peak periods that section of the works was to be done with a traffic management operative present to ensure traffic was allowed to flow as freely as possible.

The section of the works due to take place in the cul-de-sac had limited space for cars to freely pass whilst maintaining a working area for the excavation, instead of opting to close the road (which had been discussed on a number of occasions) we agreed that a give and take system would be preferential maintaining access for the residents.

To ensure anyone who might be affected in the area was aware of the works a letter was sent to the local properties and advance notice boards were placed around the area with the proposed dates in which also identified the route of the new drainage run.

Once all the rising main had been installed and the connection had been signed off by the water authority (NWL), it was time to get the pump station kitted out and operational. To ensure the system was operating to its highest function a specialist panel was designed to suit the application. We also worked alongside Pedrollo to ascertain that the Dreno units were the one to tick all the boxes!

A two man team of servicing engineers were required to fully kit out the pump station including installation of the guiderails, set up the floats and make all the final electrical connections to get site up and running.

Now that the pump station is operational and the connection to mains sewer was complete it was time for site to start connecting Caravans. If you would like more information on the services we can provide please don’t hesitate to give us a call on 01388 537030.