Northumbrian Water is starting work on a £15 million upgrade at the North East’s largest sewage treatment works in Tyneside.
The latest work at Howdon sewage treatment works (STW), in Wallsend, takes investment at the site up to more than £60 million in the last ten years.
Howdon STW is the largest sewage treatment works on the eastern coast of England, between Edinburgh and the River Thames and can treat up to 12,000 litres of wastewater a second.
The project involves upgrading the site’s primary sewage treatment tanks, including the installation of new tank covers. It will improve the performance and reliability of the site, which serves more than a million homes across Tyneside.
All of the work is being carried out by Northumbrian Water’s partner, BAM Nuttall Limited, within the STW site.
Preliminary work, which will include full isolation and cleaning of the primary tanks prior to removing the existing covers, is underway, with work set to continue through to December 2018.
Northumbrian Water’s Project Manager, Ronnie Doran, commented:
“Howdon sewage treatment works serves more than a million people, so it is important that we constantly look at ways to make the site more reliable, efficient and resilient, to make sure we′re providing great service to our customers.”
In addition to this work, Northumbrian Water is installing innovative flow monitoring software in its large pipes on Tyneside, including at Howdon. The equipment will help the company to understand the nature of the flow of waste water to inform any future improvements to the area′s sewer network.
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