Behind the Barriers: Our Dawlish Engineering Project

18th March 2022

Strolling along the riverbank in Dawlish near the Town Council, with its sweeping lawns; merry steps of waterfalls; and palm leaves rustling in the breeze; you wouldn’t have thought that a few months ago it was the site of a massive operation to upgrade our sewer network.

Look a little closer, and new signs of the project are just around the corner. A car park holds an enormous digger and dumper truck, and a 5mx5m hole yawns out of the tarmac. A few streets away, the road is closed, and a long trench runs next to a parade of vans. The cheerful calls of workmen and the grating sound of churned up concrete fills the surrounding area.

 

It’s hard to believe that the tranquil riverside is connected to the louder, harsher roadworks. But it is!

Meet Tom, Mark, Ken, George and Leon! They work for one of our amazing contractors, R&M. These guys are busy laying over a kilometre of pipework which will help look after the river quality and bathing waters of Dawlish. By digging, measuring, securing, connecting and backfilling, they lay 6m of pipework everyday. They have special pieces of kit that help them detect where the new pipe should go, and to make sure it’s laid level.

But what is this new pipe for?

This pipe is a brand new surface-water sewer. It will transport all the rainwater that falls onto your roofs, roads and driveways. This rainwater will travel into an oil interceptor that we buried beneath the grass at the riverside last summer. The oil interceptor separates oil and other pollutants from the rainwater before it is released into the river.

So how does installing a surface water sewer pipe help the network?

Separating the surface water from the foul sewage (the wastewater from your homes) reduces the amount of wastewater ending up at our wastewater treatment works. This means we’ll be only treating the water that really needs our specialised treatment, making our works much more efficient. And that's good news for the environment too, treating and transporting wastewater is energy intensive.

Not only this, but the massive tank being installed in the car park is helping relieve the pressure on the combined sewers in the area, so that our wastewater treatment works don’t get overwhelmed in stormy weather.

We have similar projects across the South West that are aimed at reducing the volume of surface water entering our treatment works. These engineering projects will benefit our precious environment and the people who live and visit our beautiful region for generations to come.

The guys were very grateful for the understanding locals - especially heroes like Ann who make them cups of tea!	When our work causes disruption, we make sure to go above and beyond to help everyone out - here's Lee making sure the bins get collected!

 

In Dawlish, this work will also have a positive impact on the local wildlife. The river is visited by salmon and otters, and there are plenty of birds to spot in and around the water. These species will be able to flourish, and those enjoying watching them can do so knowing that their habitats are protected now and for the future. Dawlish will continue to have excellent bathing water quality thanks to the hard work of Tom, Mark, Ken, George and Leon!

And you can help us too. Wipes, sanitary products and a whole range of unusual objects can find themselves at our sewage treatment works, clogging up our important machines. This means they work much slower that they’re designed to which isn’t very energy efficient. You can help keep our wastewater network working at its best by binning anything that isn’t pee, poo and paper! That includes fats, oils and grease (FOG) too! Thank you to all our brilliant customers who already do this!