The King's Lynn Internal Drainage Board, on behalf of the Water Management Alliance (WMA ), an unincorporated consortium of Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs), has awarded a contract for the Upper Thurne Construction Works - Package 2 with an estimated value of £11.359 million including VAT.

The WMA, which is not a legal entity, employs all of the shared staff and enters into contracts for the provision of shared services on behalf of the Member Boards. enters into contracts for the provision of shared services on behalf of the Member Boards. Turner & Townsend Contract Services Ltd were the procurement advisors to the WMA.

Bam Nuttall Ltd has been awarded the contract which was signed on 14 April 2026.

The procurement covers the design and construction of 3 pumping stations, namely Martham pumping station, Potter Heigham pumping station and Brograve pumping station. It also allows for the optionality of adding one additional similar pumping station site namely Somerton South Pumping Station and Culvert or Repps pumping station at a future date.

Each of the sites has an existing pumping station which will need to be decommissioned. Any instruction for one of the two optional sites is expected to be within 12 months of the contract date.

Initial value was estimated at between £8 million to £12 million for the initial 3 sites with up to a further £6 million for the fourth site depending on works required - exclusive of VAT. The works will be funded from Environment Agency Grant in Aid.

Scope of works will include:

Design and construction for the 3 pumping stations.

Telemetry system

External lighting

Control kiosk including HVAC

Motor Control Centre and full electrical system design including Functional Design Specification

Stop log systems and non return / control valves

Ducting and draw pit numbers and dimensions

Precast Concrete Units

MCC support frame

Temporary works including relevant licences, permissions and consents

Associated civil, mechanical and electrical works

Integration with existing water infrastructure

Testing, commissioning and handover to operations

Sectional Completion

Decommissioning of existing 3 pumping stations

Potential for all of the above for 4th site.

Current start and end contract dates are 14 April 2026 to 10 September 2028 with a further possible extension to 31 March 2029. The extension could be used to allow delivery of the fourth pumping station if the option included within this procurement is subsequently used and delivery needs to extend

beyond the estimated contract end date.