Portfolios – JW Clark

Sewer connection, Golder’s Green, London

Projects

Sewer connection, Golder's Green, London, Case Study

We were approached by a private customer, who had been referred to us by another private customer, to undertake both a foul and surface water connection for an existing property.

Objective

Our objective was to make two new connections onto the public sewer, both foul and surface water and connect to an existing property. The connections were made in the centre of the road, and pipes laid back to the boundary with private property. We connected the new pipework into the existing sewerage system within private property which included us making some alterations to the existing system.

In addition, we lifted an existing paved area and re-laid all the slabs.

About the project

Our customer already had a connection into a neighbouring property, but required two connections to be made into the public sewers in the Highway instead. This included both the foul and surface water sewers. The surface water sewer was in the centre of the road, at a couple of metres deep. The foul was closer to the pavement, but was in excess of 3m deep.

We facilitated to Section 106 to Thames Water, which included us putting together a basic drainage drawing, which detailed where the pipework was within the property, and also how we planned to connect to the two sewers and by which method. For the surface water we were able to fit a saddle connection and for the foul we had to fit a junction insertion.

If you need a sewer connection doing, please contact us as early as possible, there are many reasons why the lead-time for a sewer connection can be up to a year or more. For more information click here.

Our Section 50 application to Highways included some legal suspensions of parking spaces, in order that we could clear cars in advance of the work taking place. With the site set up on day one, we brought our own 3.7 tonne mini digger to site, complete with breaker.

As is the condition with a Section 50 Licence, we were obliged to source all drawings for utilities that might be present within the area to be excavated. We also sprayed up where we expected services to be, having done a CAT scan of the area.

We sawcut and broke out for the pit in the road, where we would make the two connections.

We were lucky to have very few services in the road and located both the foul and surface water sewers on day one. Over the next couple of days we carefully excavated around both sewers, breaking concrete away from the surface water sewer, as is of the case.

We sheeted the excavation as we went, using trench sheets, acrows and timbers.

We made the connections onto both sewers and these were inspected and passed by the Thames Water Inspector. We then proceeded to excavate further and to lay pipes towards the pavement.

In the pavement we encountered a lot more services, including a cast iron pipe which we think was a water main, also a couple of electric cables, BT ducts, a small BT cable which we were lucky to avoid, and also some fairly shallow Cable TV ducts. We had to hand dig around all of these services, after which we continued to lay pipework, for foul and surface water, into private property.

In private property we had to remove and reinstall the demarcation manhole for the foul, which included turning it to face the new direction out towards the Highway. From this new demarcation manhole we laid plastic 110mm pipework to connect up to the clay pipework we’d laid up to the boundary.

For the surface water we had to lay new 110mm plastic pipework from the downpipes on the house, to a new demarcation chamber that we installed, and from here will laid pipework up to that which we’d laid to the boundary in clay.

As part of the quote to our customer, we had included to lift and relay about 20 paving slabs which were uneven, creating a trip hazard. We re-laid these on a wet sand/cement bed, and pointed up around the two demarcation manholes.

With the excavations backfilled and compacted in the Highway, we reinstated with tarmac, and in the pavement we re-laid the large slabs that were there previously. The job took us 8 days from start to finish, including the work in private property. We finished by jet washing in private property and in the Highway, removing all signage and barriers from site, and taking our plant and machinery home for a well-earned rest!

Timeline

Time to quote for the works: Less than a week

Time taken to obtain Section 106 Licence from TW: 2 weeks

Time taken to obtain Section 50 Licence from Highways: 4 weeks – included talks between us and Highways regards traffic management, suspended parking bays, and we also had a site meeting with the representative from Highways

Leadtime to use S50 Licence: 6 weeks

Time taken to do the work: 8 days

Total time: 15 weeks

Do you need a sewer connection needs doing? Click here to enquire.

Don’t leave it too late for a sewer connection, most people do! Read our article here: How long does it take to do a sewer connection?

Click here to see more of our case studies.

S278 Works & Sewer Connection, Kettering

Projects

S278 Works, Kettering & Sewer Connection, Case Study

We were delighted to undertake these works for longstanding customer of ours, Parrott Construction

Objective

Our objective was to facilitate Section 278 works and an Anglian Water sewer connection, for an affordable housing development in Kettering, Northants. Our customer was Parrott Construction, a long standing customer of ours, established way back in 1958…!

About the project

The bulk of the admin work had already been done by our customer, including drawings and design, which had all been approved by Highways. But even with this process complete, we had to start the process of applying for roadspace and organising traffic management etc. With the width of the road in mind and the space we needed to carry out the works, we agreed a road closure with Northants Highways. However, as there was no footpath on the other side of the road, we had to allocate 1.2m of the road for a pedestrian walkway. We also had to apply for a Section 50 Licence, to connect to the public sewer, although the work would be carried out under the same traffic management as the S278 works.

With the road closed and the pedestrian walkway set up, we broke out and removed all of the old footpath, including the kerbs and kerb brace, in preparation for full construction of the new footpath and kerbs.

Type 1 MOT was laid to the correct specification as required by Northants Highways, new kerbs laid and the base course laid for the new footpath.

As well as the Section 278 works, we also installed a connection to the public sewer for the new properties. This was for foul only, with the surface water having been taken care of within the site boundaries by our customer. As with all the sewer connections we undertake, we liaise with Anglian Water from start to finish including arranging all inspections and final sign-off.

Both the base course and the 6mm topping was laid by hand, due to the nature of the works. The road closure was taken down within hours of our work having being completed, and the site cleared the next day. Our work was inspected by Highways two weeks later and passed in its entirety. The works on the site were completed by our customer within days of our own work being done, and tenants were in within a week of all work being completed. It was great to work on this exciting, local project, and for a customer with whom we have had such a great and longstanding relationship.

For any similar works or for any general groundwork enquiries, please don’t hesitate to contact us. And click here to read more of our case studies.

Treatment Plant Installation, Finedon

Projects

Treatment Plant, Finedon, Case Study

We were approached by our customer in Finedon, Northants, who had a treatment plant already, but it was borderline-compliant, and in any case he wanted to move it as part of an extensive reorganisation and redesign of his garden.

Survey work in advance

As part of the initial survey we downloaded the local Water Authority Asset Plan to make sure there wasn’t a public sewer in the Highway, within the vicinity of the property. Quite often a customer will have a septic tank or treatment plant dating back many years, but a public sewer may have been laid in the Highway since. Under a new law that came into force in 2020, if a public sewer exists within a reasonable distance, you cannot install a treatment plant instead.

We also took some levels on site to ascertain the proposed treatment plant inlet and outlet depth, as these are determined by the levels of the existing underground drainage on site. With these to hand, we ordered the treatment plant from Marsh Industries, we’ve had a relationship with Marsh for over 20 years, and they are our go-to supplier for all treatment plants & pump chambers etc.

With the treatment plant dispersing into a watercourse, we had to make sure that we could get the fall by gravity, from the outlet on the treatment plant, to the watercourse. Unfortunately our survey put the outlet level at the very bottom of the watercourse, which would not have been suitable – in the event that the watercourse rises during wetter months, water from the watercourse would have flooded the treatment plant and put it beyond use until the water level went down again.

We installed an 8-person treatment plant, with the property being a 5-bed house. We were lucky enough to find the ground to be very dry, despite us being at the bottom of a hill and next to the stream. The excavation work was done on Day 1, and the treatment plant was delivered on Day 2. We concreted a base for it and installed the plant with a full concrete surround. The customer did not want to lose use of his sewerage system, and therefore we kept his old septic tank in operation for as long as we could whilst the work was being undertaken. The plant was in and concreted by the end of Day 4, after which we did the switchover and laid the pipework to the watercourse. On Day 5 the customer had his septic tank emptied one last time, after which we put it beyond use by filling it with inert material from the treatment plant excavation, and capping it off.

We instructed an electrician to commission the new plant, and as a pumped-outlet unit, it had an external blower under a green hood, for which we had to form a small concrete base. The electrician installed a feed to this concrete base, which in turn fed the blower within the hood arrangement. From here a second feed was laid into the plant, for the pumped outlet – when the level in the final chamber of the plant gets to a certain level it pumps out to the watercourse.

We installed a carbon vent for the plant, which we fixed vertically adjacent to the blower housing. With the new plant connected up and working, and the old septic tank decommissioned, we set to reinstate the areas of the garden where we had been working. The garden was being landscaped after this phase of the project, and so minimal reinstatement was required.

Our customer was kind enough to leave us a 5-star review on Google afterwards. Click here to see our Google reviews

Riverside Park, Higham Ferrers

Projects

Riverside Park, Higham Ferrers, Case Study

We were delighted to undertake these works for Higham Town Council in conjunction with North Northants Council

Objective

Our objective was to rejuvenate 400 metres of pathways that had become uneven and unsafe. The paths were put down many years ago with road plainings, and our job was to resurface with Type 1 MOT granite and granite dust

About the project

It was very important to the Council that we keep the park open for the duration of the works. The park sits between two housing estates and is used for more than just recreational use. With the weather being reasonably dry at the time, we opted to close short sections of the paths at a time, and divert people onto the grass. We put signage up and offered to assist people around our works should they require.

The paths had been laid at 1.5m wide originally, but some were down to less than a metre wide, with grass and vegetation having encroached in from both sides. Our first job was to scrape off the vegetation, and to hopefully find an existing path underneath, which hadn’t been contaminated too much. Generally the paths were okay, and in the main they just needed blinding with Type 1 MOT to smoothen out the levels.

We then applied a thin layer of 0-4mm granite dust to the paths, which we compacted in, with a ride-on roller. Lastly we laid topsoil and grass seed to either side of the paths.

There was also a small ‘bridge’ formed with railway sleepers, where a natural stream ran underneath, during wetter weather. We replaced this using oak timbers, to give it a long lifespan going forward. And on top of the timbers we fixed wire mesh, to stop them becoming slippery when wet.

It was a pleasure to carry out these works, on behalf of North Northamptonshire Council and Higham Ferrers Council, we had plenty of compliments at the end of the works, and it was great to work on this project on our doorstep and to have made such a cosmetic difference.

Re-concreting of cemetery footpaths, Irthlingborough

Projects

Re-concreting of footpaths, Case Study

Objective

To break out and remove old concrete footpaths and road within the cemetery, and to completely renew.

We were delighted to be doing this work for Irthlingborough Town Council at the cemetery, so close to where we all live. And it was a tad emotional for a lot of us, who live in Irthlingborough, and found ourselves to be surrounded by so many familiar names. The concrete paths around the cemetery and the main road were full of trip hazards and the only remedy was to take them all up and start again. We kept the cemetery open whilst we were carrying out the work, and helped people get about the cemetery where we could.

The old concrete paths were well-made, and some of them laid at about 5” or 6” thick, but our 6-tonne excavator soon broke them out and we took the waste away on our own grab lorry. We dug out the old sub-base and laid Type 1 Granite MOT on a geotextile membrane. Some of the paths were curved, so we used plastic fascia board to create the curved sides.

On the majority of the paths we used 4×2 timber to create a shutter on either side. We lifted these a bit higher than the new sub-base to leave 5” (125mm) for new concrete.

A long 150-metre stretch of the path had to be pumped with an overhead ‘boom pump’, which pumps it in from above. For the remainder of the paths we used a dumper truck to move the concrete into place. And when we concreted the road to the old chapel, the concrete lorries were able to drive down the already-prepared road. In total we poured 80 metres of RC40 concrete with fibres, a total of approx. 180 tonnes. With the paths and road concreted, we finished the sides with topsoil and grass seed.

With the job finished after a bit less than 3 weeks, we completlely opened up the cemetery to the general public. We believe the old concrete was in excess of 60 years old, and of course we hope the new concrete paths and road will last a lot longer than that!

Installation of service ducts and pipes, new build, Stagsden

Projects

Installation of service ducts and pipes, new build, Case Study

Having done the groundwork for this pair of new builds 6 months prior, we were asked to come back and lay various service pipes and ducts to each of the two plots.

Objective

To lay services for two new builds, including water pipes, electric ducts & BT ducts

We were delighted to be asked to return to this site to excavate for and lay water pipes, electric ducts and BT ducts from the boundary with the Highway, to the two new builds that we had done groundwork for previously. The groundwork was done 6 months prior and a builder had since got the two shells up and built.

We brought a couple of diggers to site, our favourite 3.7 tonne Kubota digger, and also its younger brother, the 1.5 tonne. One for digging and one for backfilling.

We laid the water pipes first, as these were deepest. Anglian Water had specified barrier pipe, due to the possible risk of the ground being contaminated. Unfortunately, water authorities used to occasionally ask for barrier pipe to be used if they suspected contaminated ground, but now it’s becoming the norm, unless you can prove your ground is not contaminated. We suggested to our customer that he send AW a ground survey that he’d had done previously, which he did. Although AW relented and said they’d allow him to use standard 32mm pipe for half of the 70m run, the other half had to be barrier pipe, due to the site having an agricultural history. Unfortunately, barrier pipe is a lot more expensive than standard MDPE pipe.

We laid these water pipes at a depth of 800mm cover (750mm is the minimum), in sand surround and with warning tape to cover. AW inspected the depths that the pipes had been laid at etc. With these laid, we put in a 125mm ribbed electric duct from the boundary with the Highway, to a location near the first plot. At this point we left an open hole for an electric joint to be done later, and from here we laid smaller 32mm black duct to the meter box on each plot. These too were laid in a sand surround, and with a different warning tape on top.

Lastly we laid a BT duct, this was a 90mm duct from the boundary with the Highway, to a position near the first plot, where we built a ‘No 4’ BT Box with pre-cast plastic sections, and finished with a frame and cover supplied by BT. From here we laid smaller 50mm ducts from this box to each plot, and these ducts were finished with warning tape as well.

A nice simple job for us, and nice and local to us as well. It was a pleasure to return to this site having done the groundwork previously. Click here to read a case study on the original groundwork project for this site.

And we were delighted to have received a 5-star Google review from our customer for this job!