IWS Swanley Booster Station Upgrade

The brief

IWS engaged us to deliver a full multi-discipline civils and mechanical package at their Swanley booster station in Cambridgeshire. The scope ran across pipe laying, metering, pipework commissioning, and structural civils for a standby generator kiosk. A booster station is a network pumping asset that lifts pressure on a section of distribution main, so any work on site has to be sequenced and signed off carefully: the asset itself is pressure-critical, and any changes to pipework, instrumentation, or site infrastructure have to come together into a handover package that the operator can bring into service cleanly.

The challenge

Multi-discipline jobs on operational water sites live or die on how well the sequencing works. Six or seven distinct work packages on one site means careful phasing, clear interfaces between pipework and structural scope, and test and disinfection regimes that don’t block the critical path. The kiosk base needed to be poured, cured, and signed off against a spec that supports a generator install; the pipework needed to be laid, pressure tested, and chlorinated before commissioning; and the ducting had to be in the ground and continuous before any electrical install could follow.

Our approach

We laid 200mm pipe into the site, installed a flow meter with its chamber, pressure tested the new pipework, and chlorinated the section to the disinfection standards required before returning potable pipework to service. Alongside the pipework scope, we installed the cable ducting for the standby power install, and constructed the base slab for the standby generator kiosk.

Outcome

Full package delivered and handed over. Pipework signed off, meter commissioned, kiosk base ready for the standby generator install, ducting ready for pull. This is the shape of work we do for non-Affinity water clients: booster station and pumping asset upgrades where the civils, mechanical, and commissioning scope all need to land together.

For the broader service context see our water main installation work. For the commissioning side see our chlorination and pressure testing capability page. The project sits across our work for water companies more broadly.