Anglian Water Strategic Pipeline Alliance – Trenchless Crossings
Anglian Water set up the Strategic Pipeline Alliance (SPA) as part of their plan to improve water resilience in the region and to mitigate risks associated with water scarcity, climate change and population growth. The £350m programme saw over 400km of new interconnecting pipelines installed to support the transfer of water across Anglian Water’s region. It was one of the biggest infrastructure programmes for a generation.
Purpose
Trenchless crossings represented an important, strategic requirement for the Strategic Pipeline Alliance. Accordingly, and in line with Project 13 principles, Anglian Water engaged us as their trenchless crossing partner with a view to forming a long-term, mutually beneficial, relationship and minimising the risk associated with complex crossings.
What we did
SPA identified around a hundred locations along the pipeline where they needed to minimise disruption to the surface – for example when the pipe crossed major roads, rivers, and railway lines, or to minimise impact on sensitive areas such as Wrest Park and local wildlife sites. Many of these required a form of trenchless crossing.
Our trenchless technology experts (VolkerTrenchless Solutions) worked closely with SPA to provide early contractor involvement (ECI) services developing, optimising and standardising the approach to the delivery of the various complex trenchless crossings.
Our work consisted of developing a design, value engineering, and target cost for the trenchless crossings. We also optimised the programme to maximise utilisation of our in-house and supply chain drilling rigs, developing thorough risk assessments and mitigating any potential impact on surrounding communities, wildlife and existing services.
The construction phase was split into four batches based on geography and drilling rig requirements and we installed over 60 drills. Our trenchless techniques involved Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) where a machine drilled a hole through the ground from one side of an obstruction to the other. The pipe was then pulled through the hole.
Project successes
SPA deliberately took bold steps to adopt a production-based operating model to deliver the SPA Outcomes, promoting efficiency and continuous improvement. This was a central part of our trenchless crossing package where the focus was helping SPA with their aim of moving from ‘construction-to-production.’ We developed, optimised and standardised the approach to the assembly and delivery of trenchless crossings, adding value and driving efficiency.
We worked with the SPA to unlock value, working collaboratively to optimise the phasing of works and maintain flow of resources and continuity of workloads. We used digital technology to rehearse and optimise solutions before deploying to site.
