Lanes Group works on development site of new prison

Lanes Group has been commissioned to clean and survey drainage assets on the development site for the new North Wales Prison.

The company has been called in by Lend Lease, which is building the prison for the Ministry of Justice, to carry out detailed CCTV drainage surveys across the site on Wrexham Industrial Estate.

The work involved both remote access camera survey techniques and a walk through survey of a surface water culvert, requiring close cooperation with Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water and Natural Resources Wales.

Ian Clapham, Area Development Manager for Lanes Group’s Chester depot, which is located in Bretton, Flintshire, North Wales, said: “Investigating the existing drainage system is an important step in the development.

“Mapping out the drainage system will give the project’s groundworks team a clear idea about how to connect the drainage system for the new prison to the wider sewer network.”
The prison, being built on the site of the former Firestone tyre factory, is expected to give North Wales a big economic boost.

Lend Lease has committed to spend £50m with small and medium businesses, £30m with local businesses, and says half of the construction workforce will be recruited locally.
Local firm Lanes deployed a water recycling jet vacuumation tanker and a mainline camera team to carry out the cleaning and CCTV drainage survey work on the development site.

Ian Clapham said: “The jet vac tanker was used to desilt and clean the drainage pipes, ready for them to then be surveyed. By the beginning of March, about a half a kilometre of drainage lines had been surveyed.

“A mainline robotic crawler camera, fitted with a HD quality video camera, was then sent along the larger drainage pipes.

“The location of manholes and drainage pipe junctions were precisely plotted. This will allow site plans to be updated, so current underground water assets are clearly shown during construction.

“It will also allow the new drainage system to be designed to align perfectly with external sewers and surface water drains.”

“We also carried out a walk through survey of an 1800mm diameter surface water culvert that passed through the site. This was quite a complex operation involving a team of seven Lanes drainage engineers, and the use of forced ventilation.

“We carried out this element of the survey with the assistance of water and environment agencies because the culvert exited into an attenuation pond, then into the river Clywedog.”