Utilities
Water treatment
taps into steel The largest building
14 NSC
Nov/Dec 19
Forming part of the £300M West
Cumbria Water Supplies Project,
Williamsgate Water Treatment
Works is a brand new facility set in
the middle of the county’s countryside.
Located a few miles north of
Cockermouth, the facility will perform a
vital function for the overall project. It will
treat raw water, fed to it from Thirlmere
Reservoir, before a new network of pipes
takes the treated water to two new service
reservoirs, where it will be stored and ready
to supply customers in West Cumbria.
The main driver behind the project
is to provide a resilient water
supply to West Cumbria
following the
Environment Agency’s decision to withdraw
the abstraction licence for Ennerdale Lake,
one of the area’s current water sources, by
2022.
Consequently, the project involves
United Utilities (UU) having to link West
Cumbria with the rest of its North-West
England water network via a major new
pipeline from Thirlmere. By tapping into
the spare capacity at this reservoir
and with careful
planning, UU says it will make sure there is
minimal long term environmental impact.
As well as the new water treatment
works, the project also involves the
construction of over 100km of water pipes,
new pumping stations and underground
service reservoirs.
A lot of consideration went into the
choice of location for the water works in
order to limit its impact. The site has been
designed to merge into the natural contours
of the surrounding environment.
“We’ve moved around 300,000m3 of
earth to reshape the site and create a deeper
valley into which the works sit,” explains
Advance Project Manager Stewart Lucas.
“Approximately 100,000m3 of that total
wi l l be later used as
backfill, to
bury the
Steel construction’s long span qualities have been utilised on
the largest building at the UK’s newest water treatment facility.
has a standout dualcurving
roof
FACT FILE
Williamsgate Water
Treatment Works,
Cumbria
Main client:
United Utilities
Main contractor:
Advance (a joint venture
between Balfour Beatty
Utilities and MWH)
Structural engineer:
MWH
Steelwork contractor:
Border Steelwork
Structures
Steel tonnage: 500t
Overall the building's
footprint measures
90m × 90m