Mayflower marks million-hour milestone

28th February 2019

Workers building a new £60million state-of-the-art water treatment works for Plymouth and the surrounding area raised their hard hats in celebration to mark a million hours worked since construction started.

Since April 2016, more than 150 people have worked on the site at Roborough, just north of Plymouth, without a lost time health and safety incident – a significant achievement given the scale and complexity of the project.

South West Water’s Managing Director Stephen Bird said: “After years of planning and years of hard work on site it is exciting to see our flagship water treatment works nearing completion.

“The main building work has finished and we are now focussing on commissioning works ahead of putting water treated by the new works into supply later this year.

“The team has worked a total of a million hours over 870 days and it is testament to their professionalism that there have been no lost time incidents during this time.”

Mayflower will replace the outdated treatment works at Crownhill in Plymouth, which was built in the 1950s and is reaching the end of its useful life.

It will use cutting-edge treatment processes, designed and developed by Dutch water technology company PWNT, and tested at a prototype facility at Crownhill from June 2013 until June 2015.

The new technology features SIX® suspended ion exchange with resin regeneration system, ILCA® inline coagulation and CeraMac® C90 ceramic membrane microfiltration. It is the first time that this combined technology will be used in the UK.

Mayflower is due to become operational in autumn 2019, with the existing Crownhill works retiring from service by the end of 2019.  The project is South West Water’s biggest single capital investment in its highly-rated 2015-20 business plan.

More information is available on the South West Water website www.southwestwater.co.uk/mayflower