Lanes lines chamber to keep Lincolnshire watertight

Lanes has used Ultracoat, a revolutionary waterproofing rehabilitation system, to help a Drainage Board keep its patch of Lincolnshire free from flooding for another 50 years.

The Upper Witham Internal Drainage Board (IDB) is one of 130 such organisations across the country which, together, look after water levels in over 1.2 million hectares of low-lying areas.

Their job is to ensure that the excess water, which drains off the land and into the ditches, is directed into the rivers — and ultimately, out to sea. For Upper Witham IDB, that means keeping the rainwater that falls on 20,000 hectares of land flowing through 319 kilometres of maintained drains.

Kenneth Pratt, Engineer to the Board, explains:

“It is not always possible to rely on gravity to do that, so where the land level is lower than the water level, we operate 15 pumping stations in and around the Lincoln area to get the water out of the ditches and into the river.”

It was at one of these stations that Lanes was called in to tackle a problem with a leaking chamber.

The pumping station was built in 1959 following serious flooding to serve a catchment area of 540 hectares. But the 10-cubic metre, brick head chamber, into which the water is pumped before outfalling into the River Witham, had begun to leak.

“The walls were coated with a render which had lifted away, in parts, from the brick surface; and the water was seeping into the pump room itself, near to some electrical appliances. If left untreated, the leak would begin to threaten the integrity of the structure itself,” adds Ken.

IDBs are single interest Local Authorities, so the work was subject to a tender process, but the contractor who was awarded the work was unable to fulfil the project as tendered.

Says Lanes’ Tim Horsley: “Fortunately, we were able to step in with our Ultracoat system when the Board ran into difficulties with the original contractor.”

The pump was isolated, and the chamber outputs bunged up. Any remaining water and silt was removed using one of Lanes’ super jetvac units, before the team went in to hack off and remove all the loose render from the surface.

That had to be completed by hand and taken away before the internal surfaces were coated with Ultracoat, a two-part, 100% solid, structured, epoxy lining which is applied hot using special spraying equipment to the required thickness.

The whole project took just three days, and the result is a smooth and flawless waterproof surface, which should keep the chamber leak-free for at least another 50 years.

Ken was pleased:

“The Lanes team worked very hard to complete the work in the shortest time possible, always aware that downtime for the pumping station had to be kept to a minimum. They were very professional, and willing and able to do exactly what they said they would do.”

“Thanks to their efforts, we were able to re-commission the chamber almost immediately. And, as it turned out, Lanes’ cost was substantially less than the original contractor would have charged us to complete the job.”

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