Hi

Another week, another team member introduction,  

This is Jake.

He is our trainee Engineer, who has worked within Esh-Stantec for 4 years.  Currently Jake is helping Craig, our site engineer.  Outside of work, Jake is a keen cricketer (I am told very good), and sportsman, and is often found in the gym training or eating healthily on site.  At only 20 years of age, he is the baby on the site, and is looked after by his peers, I hope!!

Thank you Jake for taking the time to say hello to our customers.

Christine

Happy Wednesday,

Another introduction to one of our team.  This is Craig who has worked with Esh Group for over 16 years (I know, he does not look old enough)!

Craig is our site engineer, which involves providing the technical information to enable the team to construct the assets in the right place, missing any other services and being aware of ground conditions.  Craig can be seen in the site office or around site.  Another friendly team member, always happy to help.

Thank you Craig for letting me introduce you to the community.

Christine

Good afternoon,

I have been on site today to catch up with both our site team and update our local customers with our works.

However, whilst I was here the guys surprised me with a donation for over £125.00 for Macmillan.  To explain, I recently had 14" of hair cut off for Little Princess Trust and Macmillan, and the team have been great supporting me and the cause.  Massive thank you to them all :-)  With their help we have raised over £2,000.

It came to me that our customers and visitors to our portal, only ever see me or Mark Robinson on here, but we have great people who work on the site.  So over the next few weeks I will be introducing our team via this portal, giving you all an official introduction to a great team of people.

Today we start with Peter, our site foreman.  He has worked within the Esh Group over 7 years.  Peter is currently fitting and installing our clean water installations on site.  Never without a smile or a kind word.  Enjoys speaking to our customers, and making people laugh. If you see him, feel free to say hello and ask any questions.

Have a great weekend

Christine

Morning Everyone,

Having returned from a nice Christmas break, we have recommenced works to Farringdon Row, Priestly Crescent and Deptford Terrace. Works are well underway to all areas, although we are a couple of weeks behind programme as a result of delays associated with encountering uncharted buried services. However, we have plans in place to overcome this and the team are working hard to catch up.

We have carried out a large investigation exercise to date to find a route for the pipework but still have the challenge of services in areas we haven't been able to capture and survey. Along Farringdon Row, a number of electric cables have been uncovered at a depth and line where we wouldn't have expected them to be. As a result, we are having to carry out further investigative works and look back at our design. This is well underway and with thanks to Sunderland City Council, we have extended our road notice and are moving to complete the first section of Farringdon as quickly as we can. Meanwhile, we are also planning for the next stage of Farringdon, between B & Q delivery entrance and the retail park entrance.

Priestly Crescent is almost complete. The new manhole has been constructed and backfilled and the sewer pipework installed into the existing chamber. We are currently testing and completing the finishing touches inside the chambers, before reinstating and clearing the area in the next week.

Dept ford Terrace is now closed from outside Willowware to the centre of the Go North East bus depot. We have excavated through the road and prepared the trench to receive the new water main, a protected barrier pipe due to the level of ground contamination in the area. This is progressing well and we hope to have the main section of pipework installed by the end of next week. After that, we'll start installing the cross connections to existing mains and supplies to customers in the area. A diversion is in place to access all businesses in the Deptford area, following the A1231 from the Queen Alexander bridge along to Beach St, Hanover Place and finally onto Deptford.

I'll provide another update this week with some photos of our works since coming back from the Christmas break.

Thanks,

Mark

Morning Everyone,

Well that's another productive year over as we close the project for the Christmas break later today.

Following my last update, we have managed to successfully pressure test all the pipework installed to date and made a big push to reinstate as much of the roads and verges across the project. Not only does this protect the new assets but also tidies the site and prevents excavations deteriorating whilst we are closed for Christmas.

Deptford Terrace verge was backfilled and reinstated, adjacent to the Queen Alexander bridge. We will need to return in the New Year to install a telecoms bollard beside the buried chamber. This allows signals to be sent from the Flow meter back to Northumbrian Water headquarters.

The HV cables at Priestly Crescent have been prepared and although this has delayed the works, we have managed to temporarily backfill the excavation and reinstate the road ready for the Christmas break. This should help our neighbours at the recycling centre with traffic, allowing their skip wagons to access the site more easily. Please be aware, the traffic management at this location is one-way only! It allows vehicles to travel from Simpson St off the A1231 onto Priestly Crescent, but not the other way. When we return in the New Year, we'll re-establish the closure and complete the works. This should hopefully only take a couple of weeks.

Farringdon Row is now backfilled following the pressure test and completion of pipework up towards B & Q delivery entrance. We have placed tarmac from outside the Timber Supplies, past the Kings Arms pub and up the bank. The perimeter fence securing our work areas has also been significantly reduced. This will allow public to access the pub an park outside. When we return in the New Year, the road closure will remain as this layout until works are complete around the B & Q entrance. We have encountered a large number of existing buried pipes and cables which has delayed the works slightly and we are currently trying to revise the route slightly.

When we return on Monday 7th January, a new road closure will be in place along Deptford Terrace, outside Willowcrete and as far as the Go North East bus depot. This is to allow the installation of the new pipework through the road. Another work area which will be very busy. A diversion route will be in place, allowing access from Hanover Terrace onto Deptford from the East.

That is about all from me for the year, I've attached a few photos from the last couple of weeks on site.

On behalf of Esh-Stantec and Northumbrian Water, we'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for 2019!!

Mark

Good morning,

I know our site team shared there Christmas message yesterday but we at Esh-MWH and Northumbrian Water, along with our collaborative partners, wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.  So what better way than to release some Christmas cheer through a festive video. 

I hope you all enjoy watching this, as much as the team did pulling it together.

Merry Christmas

Christine

Good morning,

I visited site last week to carry out some customer visits.  Whilst I was there, I managed to get everyone into the Christmas spirit.  The team kindly recorded a Christmas message for all our customers and the local community of Sunderland. 

We would like to thank all our customers for your cooperation whilst we carry out our works.

Merry Christmas

Christine

Good Morning,

Another few weeks have passed and there has been a lot of progress, and change, across the SSTC project.

Deptford Terrace Flowmeter is now installed. Following completion of the excavation and temporary works, we constructed the reinforced concrete thrust base and wall. Therafter, the bypass pipe work was complete and pressure tested. Northumbrian Water have taken bacteria samples for testing at their labs before the main can be brought into service. We are currently backfilling the new pipe work and reinstating the area. The tarmac footpath will be replaed tomorrow.

Unfortunately, we've had a few set backs at Priestly Crescent which has resulted in delay to the works. The first problem was a defect with material delivered to site. Upon installation, a concrete pipe failed and cracked from end to end. Due it's size, we had to wait 4 days until a new section was manufacturered and delivered to site. Furthermore, last week we had issues with buried services, which has resulted in further delay whilst we work with Northern Powergrid to resolve. This will mean that the works won't be complete in time for the Christmas break (21st December).

However, we have discussed the problem with Sunderland City Council and together, came up with a solution that will allow traffic to flow out of Priestly and onto Simpson St. A traffic management one way system will be established on the day we break up for Christmas. Please note, this will NOT allow traffic to enter Priestly from Simspon St. When we return in the New Year, we'll then re-establish the closure and complete our works.

Farringdon Row is progressing nicely and we have now installed over 200m of new water main within the carriageway. This is great achievment from the team considering the amount of existing buried services we have had to overcome. Our focus before the Christmas break is now testing and backfilling the section of pipework, before reinstating part of the road to open up the bottom end of Farringdon Row, allowing unhindered access to the Kings Arms pub and Timber Supplies. We will then return in the New Year to complete the installtion up to the B & Q delivery entrance, before connecting customers along this road and commissioning the main.

I'll provide another update before we leave for the festivities,

Thanks,

Mark

Good afternoon everyone,

It has been a couple of weeks since I last posted and we've made a lot of progress across the project in the period.

Deptford Terrace Flowmeter and connection is well underway. The online valve was installed and the main recharged. We have complete the excavation and installed trench support to allow for construction of the thrust base and wall, before blinding the formation ready for reinforcement commencing next week. We are also finalising the excavation adjacent to this for the bypass pipework and Flowmeter.

The road closure and site is established at Priestly Crescent and we are currently working on the connection to the existing sewage shaft tucked tight against the A1231 retaining wall. Unfortunately, uncharted services in the form of Gas pipes have delayed works at this location and we have had to make changes to our temporary works design and safe system of work prior to continuing. After many discussions and head scratching, we have a plan to move forward. We have broken through the existing chamber wall which will recevie new pipework next week and conitnued the excavation towards MH01. Modifications to the existing chamber and installation of the new 750mm dia. stub pipe will be carried out next week.

In addition to the above, you may notice Northern Gas Networks working in and around our site. They are cutting and capping an existing pipe which passes through our work area, in order for the new relift sewer to be installed.

We are well underway with the water main installation to Farringdon Row, with approximately 100m excavated and 48m of welded PE pipe installed. Uncharted electric cables and ducts delayed works slighlty to date, with repairs and changes to design having to be implemented before we could continue. This is now complete and we have started excavating again.

This morning, we caried out an inspection of the former Cowie's site and as of Monday morning, have been granted permission to obtain a section of land within this site for our main compound. There will be a large volume of deliveries and large vehicles coming and going in the early part of next week while we set everything up. Traffic management signage will be displayed warning road users but please be extra vigilant when approaching or passing the entrance.

Enough words, take a look at a few of our progress photos over the past 2 weeks.

Thanks,

Mark

Good Afternoon,

We have now completed all trial holes along Hanover Place and as of yesterday, commenced work to Farringdon Row.

The information collected from the trial holes gets fed into the design for the new pipe, confirming the route. We now have this design for the lower part of Farringdon Row and a road closure has been established to allow for the installation of the 450mm dia. PE (plastic) pipe. The closure stretches from the junction of Beach St/Hanover Place, just outside Timber Supplies and the Kings Arms pub, up to the B & Q delivery entrance. The footpath will remain open for the majority of the works but small local sections will need to be closed periodically to allow for water connections.

Yesterday, we set up the work area using heras fence and began to saw cut the tarmac. Our team also excavated in the cobbled verge outside Timber Supplies for a valve connection and technically, the starting point of the new pipe.

Our works on Deptford Terrace beside the Queen Alexander bridge have experienced a slight delay whilst we await key materials. The new online valve and bypass pipework has been installed and the water main recharged successfully.

Another team has also commenced work at Priestly Crescent, just outside the Tarmac Concrete plant. We have closed the top part of this road, adjacent to Simpson St, to allow for the installation of a new sewage relief manhole. Having set up a small welfare compound, we excavated in the road to locate existing gas pipes that need to be cut and removed through the area of our works. 

The number of work areas is increasing and we will soon be very busy in and around the Deptford and Ayres Quay area. Please be extra vigilant of the traffic management and diversions in place. For more information on the road closures, you can click on the Traffic Information tab at the top of the Portal page.

More from me next week,

Mark