Ducting installation for new substation

The brief

Modus engaged us to deliver the cable ducting civils for a new substation connection in Barking, Greater London. Modus operates as an independent connection provider (ICP), which means they take on electrical connection schemes that would otherwise sit with the regional DNO, and they subcontract the civils element to specialist contractors like us. Our job was to get the ducting in the ground, on the right line and level, to the adopting network’s specification, so the cable could be pulled in and the new substation commissioned.

The challenge

Substation ducting is the unglamorous but unforgiving half of a new electrical connection. Before the DNO or the ICP’s electrical team can pull cable in, the trenches, duct runs, sweeps, drawpits and chambers all have to be built to spec and signed off. Any deviation on bend radius, separation from other services, chamber cover ratings, or backfill compaction, and the scheme doesn’t pass adoption. Barking is a dense urban context, which adds the usual mix of existing services, constrained working space, and traffic management to the job.

Our approach

Excavation and install of the duct route from the new substation location back to the existing network tie-in. Ducts laid, bedded, and surrounded to the adopting network’s civils spec. Chambers built where the route required them. Reinstatement on completion, handed over ready for the cable pulling and electrical commissioning to follow.

Outcome

Ducting route installed, chambers built, route reinstated, scheme handed over ready for cable pulling. This is the civils model we work to when an ICP subcontracts the groundworks scope: ducts in the ground to the right standard, on programme, ready for the electrical team to pick up and run with.

See our cable ducting capability page for how ducting civils fits into new connection schemes, and our independent connection provider (civils scope) service page for how we deliver into ICP schemes across the wider property development sector. The project sits under our work for property developers and new-build schemes.