Lanes Group wins drainage services contract for Mersey Gateway

Lanes Group has won a contract to deliver drainage survey and maintenance services to the Mersey Gateway project – the project to build a second road crossing over the Mersey in Halton.

Drainage engineers based at the Lanes Group depot in Chester are working for the Merseylink Civil Contractors Joint Venture – a joint venture consisting of FCC, Kier, and Samsung, the design and construction contractor for this major transport and regeneration project.

The new £1.86bn landmark cable stayed bridge and regeneration project, which will link Runcorn with Widnes, is due to open in autumn 2017.

The development will unlock major economic development, environmental improvement and transport infrastructure opportunities that will be realised over the next three decades.

Lanes Group has been contracted to provide a range of services, including CCTV drainage surveys, drainage cleaning and unblocking, and remedial work on existing and new drainage infrastructure.

The Lanes Chester team will deploy a JHL Recycler jet vacuumation tanker to carry out the pipe cleaning work.

It can filter and reuse dirty water, significantly reducing the need to leave worksites to refill its water tank. This will ensure Lanes’ drainage cleaning service is as efficient and cost-effective as possible for Merseylink.

Thousands of metres of concrete, plastic, and clay drainage pipes, from 100mm in diameter upwards, will be cleaned over the contract period.

Mainline CCTV drainage camera teams will carry out surveys of the existing and newly-installed drainage system supporting the road development, using a range of techniques, including using robotic crawler camera.

Merseylink will also have access to all other Lanes Group industry-leading services, such as sewer rehabilitation using both hot cure and UV relining technology.

Ian Clapham, Area Development Manager for Lanes Chester, said: “This is a very exciting project for us. The Mersey Gateway project is going to make a huge difference to the lives of people and to economic development across the North West.

“We have all the drainage expertise and technology needed to support such a large and complex project, and to work in partnership with local communities, which is vitally important to its success.”

The new bridge is being built 1.5 km to the east of the Silver Jubilee Bridge. It will have six lanes and be a toll bridge, though it will be free to use for people living in Halton, the local authority area.

The construction project, which began in May 2014, is so large it has been split into nine sections, with the bridge itself making up just one of them.

Mersey Gateway is expected to create an estimated 4,640 new jobs through direct employment, regeneration activity and inward investment.

Latest figures show the project has resulted in inward investment to the North West region of £44 million in its first year, and there are over 700 people currently working on the site.