£12 million investment project in Hereford wins Innovation Award at ICE West Midlands Awards

The annual ICE West Midlands Awards recognise teams that have delivered some of the best civil engineering projects across the region. This year’s virtual awards ceremony took place on Thursday 6 May and was hosted by Jo Barnett, ICE East and West Midlands Regional Director.

The Bewdley Bank Service Reservoir, built by Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB) and FLI Carlow on behalf of Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, won the Innovation Award for the team’s use of semi-precast construction techniques which resulted in programme efficiencies and health and safety benefits.

The newly built semi-precast reservoir, which is the largest water structure of its kind in Europe, holds around 34 megalitres of water – which is enough water to fill 14 Olympic size swimming pools. It is located next to an existing reservoir on the site which can hold 26 megalitres – which would fill 10 Olympic size pools.

Andrew Roberts, Head of Alliance Water Programme at Welsh Water, said: “We are delighted that this investment project has been recognized for its innovative techniques at the Institution of Civil Engineering West Midlands Awards. This additional reservoir will help increase the resilience of Hereford’s water network, as well as its ability to respond to fluctuations in demand so that it can continue to provide our 600,000 customers in the Hereford area with a safe, reliable water resource.

“Key to this project’s success has been the hard work and dedication of a core team from Welsh Water and MMB who have remained committed throughout the entire duration of the project.”

Matthew Thorpe, Design Lead at MMB, said “It’s fantastic to receive this recognition after a team effort that has spanned over four years to take this project from inception through to handover.

“The efficient and innovative solution that we offered early in optioneering to build one larger service reservoir instead of building at two sites as originally proposed, has allowed this scheme to bring about significant additional security of supply to Welsh Water’s customers.”

This project formed part of the £1.7 billion investment made by the not-for-profit company between 2015 and 2020 to improve services to customers and help protect the environment. Between 2020 and 2025, the company is set to invest a further £1.8 billion.