Fast track to water success
15 Jan 2000
When Southern Water decided it needed to `resurrect' a derelict water treatment works it imposed a fast-track project schedule that allowed only eight weeks for design and procurement, followed by 14 weeks for installation.
This was a tall order for main contractor PWT Projects and equipment suppliers such as Rotork Controls, but they all came through with flying colours as the Smock Alley WTW was brought back on stream last year ahead of schedule.
Originally built in the 1940s, Smock Alley had been taken out of service in 1975 but was selected in 1995 to be upgraded to a fully automated and unmanned plant that would operate as a satellite to the nearby Hardham works supplying the Crawley, Horsham and South Downs areas of Sussex.
Rotork's involvement in the project was the supply and installation of electric actuators for new butterfly valves controlling the inlet and outlet flows on the slow gravity sand filters at Smock Alley. To meet the demanding timescale, Rotork Actuation's retrofit department devoted two teams of installation engineers to fit and commission a total of 20 actuators, some of which are pictured above.
These IQ, AQ and AQM (modulating) actuators interface directly with the site-based PLC that supervises the automatic operation of the plant. A telemetry link to a control room at Falmer, 20 miles away, provides remote indication of fault and run conditions.
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