Site drainage clean gives car dealer added extreme weather protection

Drainage engineers from Lanes Group plc are supporting a major car dealership by delivering a site drainage cleaning service to minimise the risk of flash flooding.

A jet vac tanker team from the Lanes Chester depot was mobilised to carry out the latest drain cleaning project over three days at the vehicle sales business in Northwich, Cheshire.

Carrying out regular site drainage cleans is one of the most important elements of planned preventative maintenance at business premises that have large hard standing areas.

Lanes Chester Area Development Manager Sian Wyn Jones said: “Our client commissions us at least once a year to clean the drainage system across the entire site, including both foul and surface water wipes.

“By doing so, we greatly reduce the risk of blockages or faults occurring that could be much more costly to resolve. We also minimise the risk of site flooding, which can be catastrophic for businesses like this.”

Climate change is already making British weather more volatile, with extremes of hot weather – as the UK has experienced in July 2022 – and periods of torrential and persistent rain, at any time of year.

Under these circumstances, it is vital for businesses like car dealerships to maintain their drainage systems to the right standard.

“Flash flooding over hard standing areas, made worse because water cannot quickly drain away, can disrupt these businesses for long periods, even forcing them to close temporarily,” said Sian Wyn Jones.

“In some cases, vehicles on sales forecourts or stored on site can be badly damaged by flood water, adding to the potential cost of extreme weather events, which also includes reputational damage.

“On top of that, if drainage systems are overwhelmed, pollutants from mechanical workshops can escape into nearby water courses, damaging the environment and putting a business at regulatory risk.

“When you add up all these factors, it’s no wonder responsible companies, like our client, take the necessary action to ensure their drainage systems are kept in the good condition.”

Lanes carries out site drainage cleaning for other types of businesses that have similar environmental and business continuity risks, including warehouse and logistics parks, retailers, factories, and materials storage sites.

The site drainage clean carried out by the Lanes Chester team involved flushing through more than 1,000 metres of surface water drainage pipes and around 200 metres of foul sewer pipes, ranging in diameter from 100mm to 300mm.

The jet vac tanker team also emptied and recharged two oil and fuel interceptors on the site. All material removed from the pipe systems and interceptors was taken to a registered site for safe disposal.

Lanes used a recycler jet vac tanker for the work. The advanced specialist vehicle can filter and reuse its jetting water, allowing the team to stay on site for longer before refilling its water tank, increasing productivity by up to 62 per cent.

Reusing water also reduces the carbon footprint of the cleaning process, which is seen as a big advantage by an increasing number of clients.

Lanes can combine site drainage cleans with CCTV drainage surveys to make sure pipes, chambers, attenuation tanks and interceptors across a site are in good condition.

The drainage specialist recommends that a full site CCTV drainage survey should be carried out at regular intervals appropriate to the purpose, scale and location of the business site.

That way, clients can be sure the drainage system continues to have the capacity and capability to cope with demands placed on it during normal operational conditions and extreme weather events.