Wessex Water has completed a £50 million refurbishment of its Durleigh water treatment centre - the massive refurbishment of the Enmore Road site got under way in 2019 after more than four years of planning.
Image: the newly reconstructed reservoir site
The old water treatment centre – which draws on Durleigh Reservoir to the west – was reconstructed to ensure that the highest quality drinking water would continue to be delivered to a population of more than 44,000.
The enhanced water treatment centre at Durleigh has now been brought into service following the three-year demolition and reconstruction programme.
Brought into supply in the autumn of 2022, it is the largest single-value project ever delivered by Wessex Water’s Engineering and Sustainable Delivery (ESD) team, after a three-year rebuild that came in on time, despite the additional challenges posed by Covid-19.
The 30-year-old Durleigh site treats up to 30 megalitres a day of water, drawn from the reservoir, but it had outgrown its design capacity.
The reconstruction was required to update water treatment processes and ensure it would continue to meet increasing demands from a rising population, as well as reducing the high operating costs and tackle poor raw water quality, with high levels of algae during the summer and water that was often cloudy and murky in winter, that had continued to deteriorate over the past 20 years.
Image: inside Durleigh water treatment centre
More than 70 per cent of the old water treatment centre was demolished and recycled, with outdated equipment decommissioned and removed, while the rest of the site was repurposed or refurbished.
Two new wetlands created upstream from the centre will also improve the quality of water entering the reservoir and enhance wildlife and biodiversity, supporting the water company’s work with local farmers to reduce pesticides and silt entering the Durleigh Brook.
Wessex Water partnered with infrastructure consulting firm AECOM, which delivered the detailed design. Aecom established some large structures and tanks that could be built offsite and craned into position, saving an estimated 20 per cent programme time and £1.1 million, as well as reducing construction waste on site by up to 20 per cent.
The success of the Durleigh project has resulted the creation of a dedicated Off-Site Build department at Wessex Water, at which equipment can be designed, manufactured and supplied pre-assembled, reducing labour, our carbon footprint and costs.