Egg plant

Think of sewage works and bad smells, unsightly tanks of sludge and industrial-looking sites spring to mind. But Thames Water's new sewage treatment works in Reading, Berkshire is ready to dispel these images.

Four, giant, gleaming, egg-like structures dominate one corner of the sewage works, with elegant, steel-clad buildings stretching either side of them. When complete, the site will look more like a business park than a traditional sewage plant, with landscaped gardens concealing the massive underground sewage storm tanks that would usually blight the landscape.

Everything here is sealed and contained, and an intricate and extensive odour control system neutralises and removes the unavoidable smells of the process. A Profibus fieldbus system has been installed throughout the site to enable Thames to achieve a fully automated system in due course.

The works are sited on a former rubbish tip, directly across a dual carriageway from an existing, ageing plant. When complete, the sewage flow will be diverted to the new site and the existing plant decommissioned.

The several buildings that make up the site each comprise a segment of the process. Incoming sludge is passed through several automated screening processes to remove any unwanted solids such as wood that may damage plant further along the process. This solution then passes through several stages before the water reaches the required standards to be returned to drain; the remaining solids are made into pellets for fertilisers. Each building has a dedicated remote control centre to operate these functions; these are all powered from a central plantroom – the power house.

The diversion of flow took place on 17 March. With so many separate, but interconnected buildings and processes involved, to get to this stage has taken close co-ordination between the construction team and client, with textbook supply chain management and open book partnering being employed to ensure that the fast track project was completed on time and to budget.

Field Systems Designs (FSD) acted as the electrical contractor on the project. It became involved at an early stage, working with consulting engineer Black & Veatch to develop and cost the electrical installation design, confirming a target price after value engineering the design prior to tender. The firm then entered a competitive tender in a joint venture led by Black & Veatch.

Initially FSD was employed for only the main electrical package but its role grew when the majority of the subcontractors for the smaller packages let their electrical work to the firm.

Space was not an issue on this site; the vital component was ensuring close working. This began from the start: all teams set up offices on site, including the client. "You need resident management... everybody that's involved with it [is based on site] – there's no external influences," stresses Nigel Billings, FSD project manager.

The client here is the joint venture Target Alliance, which comprises Thames Water, Black & Veatch Contracting and Taylor Woodrow; the ultimate owner and user is Thames Water. On site they have acted as a cohesive team. Billings explains: "Thames is the client at the end of the day but they are on board working in the same offices as Taylor Woodrow and Black & Veatch engineers. So you don't have the situation where we've built something and try and hand it over at the end and they say: 'that's not what we want'. Thames Water is in daily meetings and discussions about what they want."

This close working is commonplace on Thames' sites. "What they've done is recognise they need strategic partners to make these projects work," explains Billings. Firms are assessed for quality management, health and safety and environmental management systems and if their abilities meet the requirements they may be given preferred status and sign up to its framework agreement.

Thames also initiated the use of open book working. The contractors worked under its Acid Management Procurement 3 (AMP3) programme and this led to an efficient and effective process. "If everybody is open and frank about what they are actually doing and what their particular problems are, it's surprising how quickly you can actually help each other," says Billings.

The open book approach helped those involved see the greater picture, rather than focusing blindly on their individual roles. One area of importance to FSD was the distribution network. Cabling is run in underground trenches from the central plantroom to the various buildings and careful planning was needed to ensure cables were laid into the trenches in the order to suit their exit points. Billings explains: "We had input to the civil design to make sure it was buildable in terms of the ductwork. We said we want them this deep, this wide, and this many, so now its our problem if there's not enough. What we could do was influence the civils contractor to give us ducts to an area in a sequence that we needed them."

Getting the teams together early and having an atmosphere of trust and openness has ultimately made the construction process more efficient. From an electrical contracting point of view, Billings explains, it has saved resources: "Otherwise what would have to happen is Taylor Woodrow would have to have an electrical engineer on board to make the decisions for them, and in the end they would be shadowing what our engineers were doing. So rather than duplicating, you just use the one resource."

One area of influence was the distribution boards: Black & Veatch bought the panels then, unusually, allowed FSD to co-ordinate their design with its supplier. Billings explains: "We had to interface with the panel builder to ensure that it was buildable when it came to site, and we've got this sort of working relationship where Black & Veatch are happy for us to talk to Anord, if there's just a flat exchange of information, without this conventional way where you have to bounce it off the main contractor to come down again, you go sideways and talk to the people involved. You report to your client what you're doing, but the job moves on quicker."

Weekly, as well as smaller, daily co-ordination meetings were held "to ensure everyone is working in the right places to the right goals." "That's not unusual for a construction site," stresses Billings. "What is unusual is the way it's conducted here: not everybody fighting their corner, but everybody looking towards the main goal, which is getting flow to this works by 17 March."

The relatively fast track nature of the project meant that it was almost a level build throughout. This led to FSD splitting its team into four areas, with separate supervisors in charge of each. The fact that FSD won several of the electrical packages helped the co-ordination. The firm was able to react quickly to daily changes and deploy manpower appropriately. Billings explains: "Because we're resident on site and have other works to do I can be flexible...If you had a different contractor doing, say, the building services of the powerhouse, they'd be on and off site, racking up a huge cost to the client."

The diversion of flow took place as planned on 17 March, after which time a year of commissioning will be carried out to ensure all is well before the complete changeover during March 2005.