WET News

2 WET NEWS SEPTEMBER 2017 COMMENT "CH2M provides Jacobs with a platform from which to capitalise..." SEPTEMBER 2 South East Water is delaying a major project to tackle future water supply and demand needs in the Fleet, Basingstoke, Sandhurst, Yateley and Camberley areas for two years. The scheme will now start in April 2020. "I joined WSP as I can see it has an appetite for growth in the UK and across the globe..." Mike Woolgar on becoming water strategy director in WSP's energy and industry team. He joined from Atkins, where he was water market director. 14% 37% £300M Yorkshire Water is investing more than £300M this Š nancial year with several projects in south Yorkshire designed to improve the area's water and wastewater infrastructure. £80bn The value of opportunites represented in the global water sector. "This is dependent on both insurers and customers contributing financially, but is a far better use of the claim spend and reduces any risk for both parties" Chris Cowen, client relationship manager for Auger, calling for lead pipes to be replaced rather than repaired wherever possible. "The range of services will complement and strengthen the existing capabilities of the business, serving our customers across a variety of sectors." Tim Cunli• e, MD of Nijhuis Industries UK & Ireland, on the acquisition of Aquatic Water Services. 25 Derbyshire charity Aquabox, which sends water Š lters to disaster victims around the world, has marked its 25th anniversary with an appeal for further support. The Š lters are assembled at its Wirksworth site by a team of volunteers. Jacobs targets lucrative water market with acquisition T hat was quick. Only a short number of weeks ago, the media was speculating that talks for Jacobs to acquire CH2M were at an advanced stage. The acquisition – for £2.47bn – has happened, with Jacobs creating and Integration Management O‰ ce that will oversee the merger of the two organisations (see front page). The combined giant of an engineering group will have a potential annual revenue of $16bn. As I mentioned in this column last month, CH2M has some "major roles this side of the Pond" on key infrastructure projects such as the Thames 'super sewer' and Houses of Parliament restoration, to name but a few. But it's also CH2M's activities in the water sector that has attracted Jacobs, having identi– ed it as being the top global water design company. The addition of CH2M, provides Jacobs with a platform from which to capitalise on a lucrative market it believes o— ers an £80bn opp0rtunity and annual growth rate of 4% to 5%. The digital technology revolution will attract today's youth Well done to AECOM for highlighting the continuing engineering and construction skills shortage in the infrastructure sector, and the need to attract youngsters by capturing youngsters' imagination through a variety of routes. The company's call coincided with the day that students eagerly awaited their GCSE results being announced. While AECOM is right in that companies must do more to attract the attention of young people to consider working in the sector, does working on major projects such as the Thames Tideway Tunnel, Crossrail or HS2 represent feats of engineering genius to the younger generation? Perhaps it's not so much about the project but the variety of digital technology increasingly being used to design and build these schemes that will matter more to youngsters. Let's face it, the digital revolution is happening much faster than anyone would have expected. Take Building Information Technology (BIM), or the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, for instance. These to disciplines have taken the engineering world by storm in the past few years, but they already seem to be becoming outdated when you compare them to arti– cial intelligence, or the Internet of Things. Getting the youth of today interested in applying these techniques to engineering schemes will surely help resolve the skills shortage. Won't it? IN A NUTSHELL Morgan Sindall Group has delivered strong proŠ t growth in the Š rst half of this year with operating proŠ t up 37% to £24.9M on revenue of £1,3bn, a 14% rise on the previous half year. Morgan Sindall's water sector activities include two AMP frameworks for York- shire Water and Welsh Water, and a joint venture project to deliver the western section of the Thames 'super sewer'. A court's ruling in the case of a child who was in- jured falling into a col- lapsed manhole cover in Not- tingham is likely to have implications for future disputes around the maintenance of wa- ter company assets on private land. Severn Trent Water has been ordered to pay £1,000 in dam- ages a¥ er the child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suf- fered injuries when stepping on a manhole cover in Mapperley in February 2014. The manhole cover had rotted away and col- lapsed, resulting in the young person falling into the open sewer below. Severn Trent promptly admitted responsibility for maintenance of the manhole cover, which was situated on private land, but denied any negligent conduct towards its upkeep. The water company argued that the landowner was in the best position to know about the existence and condition of the manhole cover, and therefore § Severn Trent ordered to pay damages despite arguing the landowner was in best position to know about condition of manhole cover. Child court case raises manhole maintenance questions had responsibility to inspect it and notify the water company of any faults or defects that required repair. However, the court disa- greed and ruled in favour of the claimant, on the grounds that the duty to proactively inspect the assets lay with the water company. The case was pre- pared by Roythornes Solicitors while the claimant was repre- sented in court by Philip God- frey of Ropewalk Chambers. Cristina Parla, personal injury paralegal at Roythornes, said: "This was a complex case as reasonable proof was needed to show that despite the man- hole cover being on private land, the liability did not lie with the landowner. "The crux of the legal argu- ment was whether Severn Trent had reasonable systems of inspection in place. Severn Trent's primary assertion was that they had responsibility for some 1,650,000 manhole covers across its region and it was too onerous a task to proactively inspect all assets. "Secondly, by statute, they are entitled to delegate and rely upon the systems of inspection by the private land owners. Sev- ern Trent also put forward an argument that they did not know the locations of all the manhole covers when they were transferred in 2011. "If an organisation, such as Severn Trent, is to rely upon an external party – in this case, the landowner – to maintain utili- ties it is clearly accountable for, such as manhole covers, the success of that delegation lives and dies on the merits of the inspection systems of that external party. "The reactive system which Severn Trent used is inconsist- ent with the positive duty that it owes to public health and safety." The court's ruling in favour of the claimant is likely to set a precedent that means that utili- ties with assets on private land are unable to use this as a rea- son not to exercise due care over their maintenance, Parla added. PRECAST DRAINAGE SOLUTIONS SALES@FPMCCANN.CO.UK FPMCCANN.CO.UK/DRAINAGE ELLISTOWN OFFICE WHITEHILL ROAD | ELLISTOWN LEICESTERSHIRE | LE67 1ET 01530 240000 MAGHERAFELT OFFICE 3 DRUMARD ROAD MAGHERAFELT | BT45 8QA 028 7964 2558 The benefits of drainage and water management may be measured through a variety of elements. It has the versatility to meet project challenges head-on and can easily handle heavy-duty applications, detailed streetscape designs and sympathetic conservation schemes. In addition, advantages include excellent physical performance, pleasing aesthetic appearance, reconstitution abilities and overall life-long cost- effectiveness. 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