A 1.6-million-pound flood alleviation (FA) scheme has been successfully completed in the village of Lowdham in Nottinghamshire.
The village had a history of internal and external sewer flooding events caused by hydraulic incapacity in the catchment sewer network and exacerbated by deteriorating assets.
Severn Trent Water (STW) and nmcn worked collaboratively by combining STW hydraulic model capabilities and nmcn design and construction knowledge to develop and deliver the best solution for the community.
A new underground, offline storage tank with a volume of 1400m3 has been installed to protect the community from sewerage flooding. The storage has been designed to temporarily hold excessive flows from the catchment until the downstream Victoria Avenue sewerage pumping station (SPS) has capacity to pump away.
Some of the sewer assets within the catchment were coming to the end of their intended design life and were deteriorating which contributed to the catchment flooding problems.
To safeguard future catchment resilience, a programme of sewer rehabilitation works was undertaken to resolve significant rainfall induced infiltration into the sewer network and to provide structural rehabilitation of a critical sewer asset beneath the Nottingham to Lincoln Railway.
An existing pressurised rising main was also extended to discharge into a part of the sewer catchment that had more flow capacity.
In addition to resolving sewer flooding the project team worked in partnership with the Local Authority to cleanse, repair and install new highway drains to resolve surface water flooding in the village to provide a holistic solution to tackle multiple hydraulic flood risks.
This was a large scale complex Civil-Engineering project based across numerous sites within a small yet busy village setting. The impact on the communitry through the duration of the works was kept to a minimum by innovative design and construction methods and proactive stakeholder management.
The negative impact of flooding on peoples lives and wellbeing cannot be underestimated. The stress and worry of potential flooding every time it rains can be very tiring.
The positive impact of this Civil Engineering scheme will be felt on people lives for years to come.
