Progress on this project has been excellent over the summer months. Many of the new structures are nearing completion. Here are some of the new structures that have been built.

These silo have been installed and the delivery pipes are being completed

The fit out of the buildings is progressing well. We have installed some of the emergency showers.

The installation of the process plant and construction of the delivery slabs are progressing well 

We are ready to start buiding the fuel delivery slab next to one of the existing buildings at Horlsey. The reinforcement is on site.

Hello. This is a quick update about how much work has been done at Horsley. We are progressing well.

Good Afternoon Horsley

Please accept my apologies for the lack of updates, I am sure you will all understand that the Covid 19 lockdown has thrown us all.

Today we have delivered an update letter to the residents of Horsley regarding some work we are planning to carry out this week. The information in the letter is outlined below.  

We have fewer colleagues available to speak with you due to coronavirus and it may take longer to answer your call on 0345 717 1100 so if you would like more information you can contact the project team by using the contact us button above or by commenting on my post.

Stay safe.

Amanda 

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Dear Customer

Work at Horsley Water Treatment Works

As part of our on-going investment to upgrade the works and to secure water supplies into the future, I’m writing to let you know about some additional work this week which may generate some noise from our site.

From 9am on Tuesday 23 June 2020, to 5pm on Thursday 25 June 2020, we will be continually running some additional pumps within the site boundary and this may generate some low level background noise throughout the duration of the work. Please accept my apologies for the short notice in letting you know about this essential work.

We will do everything we can to keep disruption to a minimum and I would like to thank you for your patience as we continue to work within your community. There will be no disruption to your water supply.

If you have any queries about this work, please telephone our customer contact centre on 03457 171100 or tweet us @nwater_care. You can also find out more information as work progresses at www.nwlcommunityportal.co.uk and follow the link to the Horsley page.

Yours sincerely

Mike Forster 

Project Manager

Hello everyone

Last month staff from Interserve and Doosan on our Horsley site volunteered their time for a community project at The Hearth community cafe in Horsley to prepare the ground for Tree Day; a family tree planting day being held this Sunday 24th November https://www.thehearth.co.uk/special-events which looks to be a great event, contact the Hearth for more details. We were lucky enough to get one of the last good days weather wise and the team powered through the work, moving healthy trees to better locations, removing trees in a poor state and cutting back the undergrowth to make space for new planting. All of this was carried out with a view to preserving the environment for nature as well as improving the accessibility for the community. A stepped path was laid to improve access for users. We were very happy to support a great little event for this brilliant community facility.  I would also like to that Pam and the rest of the team at the Hearth for looking after us with hot drinks and food. 

Hi, everyone

The latest update from the Horsley Upgrade Scheme follows:

Insatllation of cable tray continued to various locations around the site. Cable installation has also continued around site.

Concrete was placed to the second lift of the walls to the static mixer chamber. This will house pipework and injection points for the chemicals used to treat water prior to introduction to the Rapid Gravity Filters. Tanks for the storage of chemicals were delivered to site and intalled to the Chemical Building to the north end of the site.

Metalwork (stairs and flooring) installation continued in the Rapid Gravity Filters area.

A couple of weeks ago three colleagues and I visited a treatment works in Hodder, Lancashire to pick up on any lessons learned since their similar upgrade was completed a few years ago. On the way back up I suggested we stop for some lunch at one of the hostelries I'd spotted on the outward journey. The first one was closed and the second one was so busy we couldn't get a spot in the car park. I must go back there on another Wednesday afternoon at 2.00 p.m. (in the middle of nowhere) to find out what the draw is! We then continued on and visited the "Truckstop" at Tebay just off the M6. I was mildly surprised at the condition of the place which was nothing like the transport cafe suggested by the name. The menu displayed things like "Hacher at boulettes", "legumes", and "frites" (obviously catering for the European truckers). I stuck with something more Anglo (chicken curry and rice) but watched one of my travelling companions order from the counter. The items I've listed from the menu turned out to be mince and dumplings, vegetables and CHIPS! At least I think it was, as when I got to the table with my meal I couldn't distinguish what his was as it was hidden by a layer of tomato sauce (ketchup a la tomate). What would Escoffier have made of it? You couldn't make it up!

Happy eating!

Geoff

Hi, everyone

Now that the holiday season is over It's time to update the report on progress at Horsley WTW.

Mechanical and electrical installations have continued in the Actiflo, Rapid gravity Filters, and the new Birney hill Pumping Station (BHPS). With pipework installation completed in the BHPS the roof construction commenced with structural steel support columns erected and the construction of falsework (support frame) and formwork to the roof slab soffit (underside of the slab). Fixing of reinforcement steel has now commenced to the slab.

Laying of underground ducts for electric cables has continued around the site. Cable drawpits are being constructed as this work progresses.The crawler crane which has been stationed alongside BHPS for some time has been dismantled and has been transported from site. A mobile crane will from time to time be used for any further lifting operations required in this area.B

Support steelwork and metal covers have been fitted to the Inlet distribution chamber at the head of The Works.

Work to the Static Mixer Chamber commenced with excavation completed in August. Concreting of the base slab and first lift to the walls has now been completed. Backfilling around the lower section is complete and the second lift of concrete walls will follow.

One of my colleagues at Horsley went on holiday with his family and friends on a return visit to the hotel they all stayed at last summer. They knew the full drill for the fortnight as they were now veterans. Said colleague's wife was tasked with confirming the return pick-up details, and duly returned with the intel (it's like I've seen "The Bodyguard" and know all the snip-speak) that the pick-up point was the same as last year. As the roads around their hotel are narrow and tricky for a coach to navigate the gang of seven trooped down the hill on departure day to the same departure point as the previous year ( I should point out that this was the middle of the day in Spain and they were all rigged out in their new travel gear which was designed for the English winter - it being mid-August). They'd arrived in good time for the pick-up but started to worry when the bus hadn't arrived 30 minutes after the allotted time, particularly when my colleague pointed out that a coach from their tour operator had passed the recce point and headed half a mile up the hill to the air-conditioned hotel they had recently vacated. I'm not sure why nobody endangered his/her life by standing in the middle of the road as the bus passed them again on the Airport-bound return run. It was probably because the instructions were so clear re this year's return pick-up and specifically because the normally infallible, right-first-time, do-it-once only person in the squad had provided the verification.Turns out that the bus pick-up point for this year was the bus stop on the street with exactly the same name as that of the hotel (a different bus stop to last year). Anyway, 2 taxis and 140 euros (which now equates to about 300 quid) later the mood at the airport was what was described as smouldering. He decided that silence was the most suitable form of retribution, armed with the (probably misguided) opinion that any of his similar previous misdemeanours now paled into insignificance. The wife was inconsolable with shame, horror, and embarrassment at the departure airport. In my head I have a picture of her being an outcast sidling to the empty quarter of the airport departure lounge to leave everybody else to enjoy the last few hours of the holiday experience. I'm surprised nobody's thought of producing a comedy series based on similar exploits. You couldn't make it up.

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Safety milestone

Our team at Horsley recently completed 350000 working hours without a lost time accident. A fantastic achievement that shows the high standard of working and commitment to safety by everyone involved in this project. Well done everybody

Hi, everyone

Time for another update to the Horsley WTW Upgrade scheme:

In the last month, concrete work has been completed to the walls on the new Birney Hill pumping station at the south end of the site. Installation of pipework and fittings has commenced ahead of the roof construction.

Storage silo installation has been completed to the Actiflo Chemical building. Roof cladding to the Chemical building has continued. Electrical works have continued with cable tray and below-ground cable duct installation ongoing. The Filters' MCC (motor control centre) has been installed in the designated kiosk and cabling work is ongoing. Externally, transformers have been positioned adjacent to this kiosk. Various high voltage operations have been carried out.

In the Rapid Gravity Filters area, filter nozzles are being inserted to the filter flloors. This is a labour intensive operation as all 24,000 of the nozzles have to be fitted by hand.,

At the east side of the site, excavation for the sludge tank and centrifuge bases has been completed. Blinding concrete is to be placed this week prior to reinforcement and structural concrete works commencing.

About a month ago the Project Manager invited me to an event entitled (he said) "From Berwick to The Baltic". I surmised that this must be part of the Coast and Castles cycle route which I'd tackled some years ago. I immediately commenced training for the event with ever-increasing cycle rides in the evenings and at weekends. Imagine my chagrin when, 2 days before the event, I found out that the it was actually called "From BEWICK to The Baltic" - a talk on the local, nationally-acclaimed wood engraver, Thomas Bewick, who plied his trade in Mickley. The talk, at the church hall in Horsley village, covered art in the North-east from Bewick's time (late 18th century) to the present day. It was very interesting and informative, giving details of the many venues in the area showing local art, especially in this time of the Great Exhibition of the North. However, my newly- honed glutes were not used to a prolonged period of sitting and I fidgeted to gain a comfortable mien throughout the talk. I failed to win a prize in the end of show raffle but I won great applause for my break-dancing effort afterwards (I'd only attempted to get to the toilet at the rear of the hall when the glutes went into spasm and I looked like a cross between Michael Jackson and James Brown in their heydays - I'm sure most people know that these two styles are wholly incongruous). I climbed out of the toilet window and staggered in a cyclist's crouch to the car to make good my escape.

You couldn't make it up.

Hi, everyone.

Work is bowling along nicely on the Horsley project.

Concrete work has continued to the new Birney Hill Pumping Station with wall construction nearing completion. Storage silos (lime and carbon) for chemical treatment of the raw water have been erected to the east side of the Actiflo/Chemical buildings. Piling work has commenced adjacent to the Sludge building ( surprisingly quietly). Electrical first fix work has continued in the Actiflo building (this involves fixing of support cable trays and containment). Some of the high voltage (HV) work has been carried out, with the installation of switchgear inside an existing HV building. The roof cladding to the chemical building is now being installed.Summer's here!

I went to the Lake District last weekend for a one-night stopover in Troutbeck. Once we were sorted out and dropped the bags, my wife and I went for a walk up onto Wansfell Pike. Having conquered the Pike I decided it was time for a well-earned drink. I hailed a bloke leaning on a gate in the mist:

Me: "Hello, my fine fellow. Are you acquainted with the locale?"

FF: "Lived here man and boy, eh?"

Me: "No, this is my first time here. Could you direct me to The Mortal Man, good chap?"

FF: "Straight up the road on the right, about 300 yards, eh?"

Me: "I don't know. Like I said it's my first visit. Is it far to The Mortal Man?"

FF: " I just told you, eh?"

At this I gave up, bade him a fond adieu and returned to my bemused-looking long-suffering wife.

Wife: " Is it far, then, because I'm clamming for a glass of wine?"

Me: " I don't exactly know because I seem to know more than him, and he's lived here all his life."

Wife: "Eh!??"

Me: "Don't you start!"

How come Cumbrians always answer my simple enquiries with a question, eh?

You couldn't make it up!

Geoff