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Mott MacDonald

We are proud of being a world-class independent management, engineering and development consultancy. Being independent, wholly owned by our people, puts us in charge of our own journey and allows us to focus on what we believe is important for our clients, our colleagues and the communities we work and live in.

We have more than 100 years’ experience in the water sector and are experts in every aspect of water development, with all the skills and commitment to deliver solutions that benefit every stakeholder. We also established Mott MacDonald Bentley more than twenty years ago to deliver long-term programmes of work through a strategic focus, effective communication and flexibility in different models of working. We are experts at building a trusted relationship with our clients.

From investment planning to operational support, design to capacity building we work with private investors and listed companies, as well as national and local governments across the world in both developing and developed regions. As advisors, we think laterally and find the connections that others fail to make. We are pioneers with a thirst for innovation, who understand the challenges facing the water industry today, including biodiversity net gain, natural capital and ecosystem services, the practicalities of the journey to net zero, nature-based solutions and natural flood management and the need to consider everything from a fresh angle and turn obstacles into sustainable paths for both businesses and the lives they touch every day.

Dunside Reservoirs (2024)

The removal of two reservoirs from the Reservoir Act

Groundwater Impacted Storm Overflows (2024)

Helping nature and society thrive through the design of innovative wetlands

Loch Katrine Emergency Dam Project (2024)

A testament to engineering prowess and safety excellence

Newthorpe STW (2024)

Improving sustainability & resilience of sewage treatment in the Erewash Valley

Project Pipeline - County Durham & Tees Valley (2024)

Update on construction of a large diameter strategic water main including a challenging crossing of the River Tees

Sluvad WTW (2024)

Removing manganese and iron through the first UK water industry application of jet mixing for coagulant mixing at a water treatment works

Witches Oak Raw Water Pumping Station (2024)

Severn Trent’s Green Recovery Programme: combining natural solutions with conventional infrastructure

Witches Oak WTW: Green Recovery - Decarbonising Water Resources (2024)

The challenges of designing and constructing the Witches Oak programme of works on multiple sites to a condensed timescale

Lluest Wen Reservoir (2023)

Located near Maerdy in South Wales, Lluest Wen Reservoir is a Category A Large Raised Reservoir as defined by the Reservoirs Act 1975. The reservoir is impounded by a 200m long, 25m high earth embankment dam across the Rhondda Fach River and currently impounds 1.07Mm3 of water. Construction of the reservoir was originally completed in […]

Lower Barden Reservoir (2023)

Lower Barden Reservoir is the lower of two reservoirs located near Bolton Abbey within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The reservoir is an impounding reservoir with a crest length of approximately 640m and a maximum height of 28m with a capacity of 2.23 Mm3. The overflow is located on the right-hand side of the embankment […]

Ovingham Raw Water Pumping Station (2023)

Northumbrian Water’s Ovingham Raw Water Pumping Station (RWPS) is an abstraction station located on the north bank of the River Tyne in South Northumberland between the towns of Wylam and Ovingham. The station provides raw water from the River Tyne to Horsley Water Treatment Works (WTW) and the Great Southern Reservoir at Whittle Dene WTW. […]

Tees & Central Strategic Pipeline: Phases 1 & 2 (2023)

With approximately 60km of new 800/900mm pipeline required to replace the existing potable water mains, some of which are over 150 years old, the Tees and Central Strategic Pipeline will directly improve water quality, network resilience and operability within the Tees Network. The pipeline will serve approximately 50,000 properties and link a number of strategic […]

Ufton Nervet WTW (2023)

Ufton Nervet WTW is a groundwater treatment site located in the Kennet Valley Water Resource Zone, to the south of Reading and supplies an ‘island zone’ of approximately 12,000 properties. Groundwater is pumped through pressure filters for iron removal after which chlorine is dosed before flows enter the contact tank, which is a single cell […]

Witches Oak WTW: Green Recovery - Decarbonising Water Resources (2023)

In the summer of 2020, the water industry was set a challenge by its regulators to identify ways to support the country’s green economic recovery from Covid-19. Severn Trent responded with a number of proposed programmes, including Decarbonising Water Resources (DWR), the subject of this paper. The objective of the DWR programme was to provide […]

Wooler WTW (2023)

Wooler Water Treatment Works (WTW) is fed by four boreholes and supplies up to 160m3/hour of potable water to Wooler and surrounding areas, including several tourist and semi-residential holiday parks serving over 5,000 people. Seasonal fluctuation in demand can increase turbidity and increase iron and manganese concentrations in the borehole water, particularly when flows are […]

Maiden Lane Reservoir (2022)

The brick-built Maiden Lane Reservoir holds 67 million litres of water and supplies a population equivalent of approximately 200,000 people in north-east London. The reservoir is located in Dartmouth Park which opened to the public in 1972 and is in the London borough of Islington. The top of the embankment gives an open semi-panorama of […]

Queen Elizabeth II Reservoir (2022)

The Queen Elizabeth II (QEII) Reservoir is a raw water reservoir in South West London that is owned and operated by Thames Water. The reservoir holds over 19 million litres of water, equating to 10% of the raw water storage for London. Once treated, this provides clean potable drinking water for millions of people across […]

Stoke Bardolph STW - Anaerobic Digestion (2022)

Stoke Bardolph Sewage Treatment Works (STW) is Severn Trent’s second largest STW and serves a population of c. 620,000. The site is also a major regional sludge centre, meaning it takes a high volume of sludge imports from other sites in the region. Stoke Bardolph has a sludge treatment capacity equivalent to a population of […]

Swinsty Impounding Reservoir (2022)

Swinsty Reservoir is the third in a cascade of four impounding reservoirs in the Washburn Valley, North Yorkshire. The reservoir is impounded by a 490m long, 24m high earth-fill embankment dam with a central puddle clay core, storing 3.94 million cubic metres at top water level. The overflow is located on the right-hand side (RHS) […]

Welsh Water Dynamic Water Quality Assessment (2022)

The River Gwili and River Gwendraeth Fawr in Wales have long suffered from poor water quality, often failing to meet phosphate targets. It was believed that the discharges from seven wastewater treatment works were contributing to deterioration in these two rivers. The need to improve the river water quality was established, but the means to […]

Wessex Water Resilience Programme (2022)

Flood events in the United Kingdom during the summer of 2007 resulted in a loss of essential services and infrastructure not seen since World War II. Reportedly, over half a million people were left without water or electricity supply, with the estimated cost of the events exceeding £3.2 billion. The subsequent Pitt Review commissioned by […]

Boston Barrier Tidal Flood Defence Scheme (2021)

The Boston Barrier Tidal Flood Defence Scheme is a £100m project for the Environment Agency, delivered by BMMJV (a joint venture between BAM Nuttall and Mott MacDonald), to reduce the risk of tidal flooding to 14,300 properties and businesses in Boston, Lincolnshire. Boston is located on the east coast of the United Kingdom off The […]

Hull WwTW - Project Update (2021)

Located in Saltend, Yorkshire Water’s Hull WwTW provides sewage treatment for a population equivalent of over 1 million people, covering an area from the west of Hull to Hedon in the east. This case study follows on from an initial paper in 2020 and details the progress of the new inlet works and the refurbishment […]

Ludham Licence Reinvestment (2021)

Ludham WTW supplied 2.1 million litres a day (MLD) of treated water to 2,464 properties in Ludham and Martham whilst originally being fed by Ludham boreholes, with emergency supply coming from East Ruston boreholes. This £7.6m scheme addressed area growth and abstraction licence challenges by combining different schemes to deliver an efficient solution for customers […]

River Itchen Eel Screens Project (2021)

Portsmouth Water’s River Itchen Water Treatment Works (WTW) is located to the east of Southampton Airport near to the picturesque Itchen Valley Country Park and abstracts water directly from the River Itchen for treatment. The River Itchen is 28 miles long and runs from mid-Hampshire near Cheriton through Winchester to Southampton at Mansbridge and is […]

Tideway East - TBM Delivery (2021)

The Thames Tideway Tunnel is a new storage and conveyance tunnel running through the centre of London, mostly under the River Thames. The main tunnel, which is approximately 25km long with an internal diameter of 7.2m, will run from Acton in the west through to Abbey Mills in the east. The project has been split […]

Withernsea Long Sea Outfall - Part 2 (2021)

August 2020 saw the successful completion of a new 3.5km outfall pipeline comprising of onshore (2.5km) and offshore (1km) sections on the Holderness Coast in Withernsea, East Riding of Yorkshire. Due to continued coastal erosion, the purpose of the project was to relocate the existing Withernsea WwTW further inland and replace the exposed existing long […]

Helston (Cober) Flood Alleviation Scheme (2020)

Helston is located at the northern end of the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall and the lower town has suffered from a long history of flooding from the River Cober. This ultimately prompted the development of a flood alleviation scheme (FAS) in 1989. However, following these works, there were further flood events in 1993, 1999, 2003 […]

Hookstone Road CSO (2020)

Hookstone Road CSO in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, is a CSO chamber with upstream and downstream online storage provided by large diameter pipes. During storm events, pass forward flow is restricted by the 200mm outlet pipe and 90 degree bend downstream and partially fills the storage pipes before excess flows pass through a screen at the […]

Hull WwTW (2020)

Hull WwTW located at Saltend, east of Hull, provides sewage treatment for a population equivalent of over 1 million people, covering an area from the west of Hull to Hedon in the east. The existing treatment works was built over 20 years ago and required some specific upgrading and refurbishment. The primary drivers for the […]

Loch Venachar Fish Pass (2020)

Loch Venachar Reservoir is located near Callander in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. The reservoir was formed in 1859 under the direction of civil engineer John Frederick Bateman (1810-1889), when the existing loch level was raised by the construction of a masonry dam across the outlet from the loch known as the Eas […]

Lynemouth Mine Water Treatment Scheme (MWTS) Phase 2 (2020)

The Lynemouth Colliery was part of a larger mining block linked to Ellington Colliery (Ellington Combine) that worked reserves under the North Sea; the mining block extended inland close to Morpeth. Groundwater lies above the rocks forming the coal measures. If mine water was to rise unchecked, it could pollute a source of water for […]

Murton WTW (2020)

Murton WTW is fed by six boreholes and supplies up to 350m3/hour of potable water to Berwick-upon-Tweed and surrounding areas, serving over 7,500 properties. The boreholes which feed the Berwick Water Supply Zone can contain turbidity, particularly when flows are high, interrupted or varied. The existing treatment process was unable to remove the turbidity, causing […]

Withernsea Long Sea Outfall - Part 1 (2020)

Withernsea is located in Yorkshire, approximately 18 miles east of Hull on the Holderness Coast. The area is vulnerable to coastal erosion due to the geology being mainly soft boulder clay. Groynes and sea walls being installed in Bridlington and Hornsea have affected the longshore drift, which has caused Withernsea area beaches to narrow, providing […]

Boston Barrier Tidal Flood Defence Scheme (2019)

Boston Barrier Tidal Flood Defence Scheme is a £100m project for the Environment Agency, delivered by BMMJV (a joint venture between BAM Nuttall and Mott MacDonald), to reduce the risk of tidal flooding to 14,300 properties and businesses in Boston, Lincolnshire. Boston is located on the east coast of the United Kingdom off The Wash […]

Davyhulme WwTW Modernisation Project (2019)

Davyhulme Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTW) is United Utilities (UU) largest, serving over 1.3 million customers across Greater Manchester. Built in 1894, it has seen continuous development in wastewater treatment including the invention of the activated sludge process (ASP) by Ardern & Lockett in 1914. Incoming flows from the combined sewer network can reach 30m3/s, the […]

Flass Vale (Durham) Sewerage Scheme (2019)

Flass Vale is an area of woodland to the northwest of Durham City Centre that extends north-west to Durham Johnston School and the A167. Flass Burn flows generally north-west to south-east through the Vale. The Burn is an open ditch in the northwest and is culverted in the southeast including through a former bus depot […]

Goscote STW (2019)

Goscote STW is an activated sludge process (ASP) works located near Walsall in the West Midlands which serves a population equivalent (PE) of 120,806 (including trade). The site discharges into the River Tame catchment. Its upgrade was key to meet a tighter environmental permit in AMP6, being 10 mg/l BOD, 1.3 mg/l ammonia and 0.2 […]

Juas WTW (2019)

Guernsey is an island with a population of around 65,000. It has been served by three water treatment works; two (at Longue Hougue and St Saviour) utilising a membrane technology, and the third based on a more traditional rapid gravity filtration (RGF) process. The operation, control and reliability of the Longue Hougue plant had for […]

Minworth STW - Curdworth Sludge Lagoons (2019)

The Curdworth Sludge Lagoon is located within Severn Trent’s Minworth STW site, alongside the Minworth Final Effluent Channel situated to the north and the River Tame to the south. It was constructed during the early 1900s. Filling operations ceased during the late 1940s and it has remained in its current state since that time. The […]

Renny’s Lane Foul Sewer Rising Main Replacement (2019)

Renny’s Lane Sewage Pumping Station (SPS) is located in arable farmland to the south of the Belmont and Carville residential estate, north east of the City of Durham. The pumping station has two parallel rising mains which transfer combined flows into the gravity sewerage network which ultimately drains to Belmont Sewage Treatment Works (STW). The […]

Seaham STW - Inlet Works Upgrade (2019)

Seaham Sewage Treatment Works (STW) receives and treats raw sewage from Seaham and the surrounding area. Constructed in phases between 1996 and 2001, the works serve a population of over 23,000 people. The works were originally built to ensure compliance with the Bathing Water Directive, as the site discharges directly into the North Sea via […]

Stocksbridge WwTW (2019)

Stocksbridge WwTW is located in the village of Deepcar on the outskirts of Stocksbridge, approximately 7km northwest of Sheffield city centre. It currently serves a population of 13,000, but this is expected to grow towards 15,000 by 2030. Major housing development is ongoing near the existing works, and as part of this Yorkshire Water reached […]

Talybont Reservoir (2019)

Talybont is a Large raised reservoir situated in the Brecon Beacons National Park approximately 30 miles north of two of the most populated cities in Wales; namely Cardiff and Newport. Construction of Talybont Dam began in 1932 and ran through until 1939. It was conceived out of a requirement to supply treated water to the […]

Ten Acre Impounding Reservoir (2019)

Ten Acre Impounding Reservoir (IRE), located in Haverah Park near Harrogate, is owned and operated by Yorkshire Water (YWS). The reservoir is impounded by an earth-fill embankment dam, approximately 17m above natural ground level at the highest point, with a capacity of 150,000m3 at top water level. The reservoir was constructed by Harrogate Waterworks Company […]

Tideway East - Hydraulic Modelling (2019)

The Thames Tideway Tunnel is a new storage and conveyance tunnel running through the centre of London, mostly under the River Thames. The main tunnel, which is approximately 25km long with a maximum internal diameter of 7.2m, will run from Acton in the west through to Abbey Mills in the east. The aim of the […]

Walsall Wood STW (2019)

Walsall Wood Sewage Treatment Works was a trickling filter site discharging into the Ford Brook, part of the River Tame catchment. Under the new Water Framework Directive, the site was required to comply with stringent new standards for phosphorus and ammonia levels in wastewater (BOD: 10 mg/l, NH3: 1.9 mg/l, Total P: 0.5 mg/l). The […]

WAMM (Water & Abandoned Metal Mines) Programme (2019)

Abandoned metal mines pollute approximately 1,500km of rivers in England and contribute about 50% of the cadmium, lead and zinc in surface waters despite most closing in the early 20th century. The WAMM (Water and Abandoned Metal Mines) Programme is a partnership between the Environment Agency, the Coal Authority and the Department for Environment, Food […]

Audley Borehole Pumping Station (2018)

Audley Borehole Pumping Station is one of Severn Trent Water’s (STW) borehole capital maintenance projects which supports the Peckforton Group in supplying potable water to Coopers Green Reservoir. As part of the £3m scheme, the project focuses on delivering resilience from Audley to maintain high quality water supply to the people in Staffordshire. Audley is […]

Blackpool South Surface Water Strategy (2018)

The Blackpool South Surface Water Strategy is a £30m scheme aimed at improving bathing water quality along Blackpool’s golden mile. The project tackles the combined challenges of climate change, an aging Victorian sewer network, increasing urbanisation and a responsive catchment. The project’s objectives are the reduction in frequency and quality improvement of spills within the […]

Hanchurch Service Reservoir (2018)

A ‘product-based’ approach to service reservoir construction is revolutionising the way MMB are constructing a new multi-million-pound distribution service reservoir (DSR) for Severn Trent Water (STW). To boost productivity in the construction process, the new 43ML reservoir is being treated as a ‘product’, manufactured largely off site in controlled-conditions, before being assembled on site near […]

Preston WwTW (2018)

Preston WwTW serves a population in excess of 250,000 and has six sub-catchments: Lytham, Fairhaven and Freckleton within the Fylde District to the west, Lea Gate and Watery Lane to the east within the Borough of Preston and Penwortham to the southwest within the South Ribble District. United Utilities (UU) has invested £20m during AMP6 […]

Upper Chelburn Impounding Reservoir (2018)

Upper Chelburn Impounding Reservoir (IR), located near Rochdale on the east Lancashire moors, is owned and operated by United Utilities (UU), providing compensation water to the nearby Rochdale canal. The reservoir is impounded by northern and southern earth-fill embankments (Figure 1), with a resulting capacity of 236,000m3. The 16.5m high northern embankment was constructed between […]

Woodgate Hill Service Reservoir No. 2 (2018)

Woodgate Hill Service Reservoir No. 2 (SR2) was commissioned in 1963, providing a total capacity of 269Ml and a throughput that equates to 20% of the regional water demand. The reservoir was built in to the hillside with an excavation of around 380,000m3. With a footprint of 47,000m2, at the time of construction, Woodgate Hill […]

Blackburn and Darwen WwTWs (2017)

Blackburn and Darwen WwTWs are two of United Utilities’ major treatment works and are located near the former mill town of Blackburn, Lancashire. The Blackburn and Darwen WwTW Integrated Solution (BDIS) project combines new river water quality and bathing water drivers at these two works into a single integrated project. The integrated approach will give […]

Butterley Spillway Improvements Works (2017)

Yorkshire Water’s Butterley Reservoir is located in the Wessenden Valley, West Yorkshire, with construction completed in 1906. The reservoir dam has a puddle clay core and a spillway constructed with local traditional stone. Due to fissures in the surrounding rock, leakages around the dam were experienced during the original commissioning phase, leading to a longer […]

Davyhulme WwTW Modernisation Project (2017)

Davyhulme WwTW is United Utilities’ largest wastewater treatment works, which serves over one million people in Greater Manchester; it has been undergoing a £200 million modernisation process, which started on site in 2015 and is now close to construction completion. The upgrade is required to ensure it complies with tighter discharge consents and the impact […]

DCWW Coastal Investigations Programme (2017)

In March 2015 Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water (DCWW) launched the biggest Welsh coastal investigation and modelling project ever undertaken to enhance its understanding of the factors affecting water quality at 49 sites (29 bathing waters and 20 shellfish waters) along the entire Welsh coastline. The evidence gathered from this study will allow DCWW to assess […]

Foreness Point Intertidal Habitat Enhancement Plan (2017)

In November 2016, Southern Water commissioned Mott MacDonald to conduct a study to examine the opportunities for devising possible habitat enhancement options via an Intertidal Habitat Enhancement Plan (IHEP). The aim of the study was to identify enhancement options that would be available to Southern Water to support coastal biodiversity in the intertidal zone adjacent […]

Springs Impounding Reservoir (2017)

United Utilities (UU) is the statutory undertaker for 132 impounding reservoirs (IRs) retained by earth-fill embankment dams which fall under the requirements of the 1975 Reservoir Act. Before the era of ‘Pennine’ type clay core construction techniques, many impounding reservoirs that were constructed around the turn of the nineteenth century were substantially homogenous, comprising of […]

Botley Park Trunk Sewer (2016)

The Ashill Group is building a development of 1,400 new homes and businesses to the east of Southampton on Botley Park Golf Course and the adjacent farmland. As the local sewerage undertaker, it is Southern Water’s statutory duty to connect this development to its foul sewer network. Following initial investigations, Southern Water confirmed that the […]

Davyhulme WwTW Modernisation Project (2016)

Located in the North West of England, Davyhulme wastewater treatment works (WwTW) is United Utilities largest works, serving over 1 million customers across Greater Manchester. The works are currently facing several future challenges, namely (i) the tightening of the ammonia (NH3) permit limit from 3mg/l to 1mg/l to comply with the requirements of the Freshwater […]

Grafham WTW Resilience (2016)

Grafham WTW is located near Huntingdon and serves a population of 829,000, including Northampton, Huntingdon and Bedford. It is estimated that approximately 614,000 of these would be affected by a major outage at Grafham WTW. As part of Anglian Water’s AMP5 Final Business Plan programme, the Grafham WTW Resilience scheme was identified to mitigate the […]

Jackson’s Edge Service Reservoir - Compartment 1 (2016)

Jackson’s Edge Service Reservoir (SR) is a water supply scheme that will provide increased security to the network through the provision of a new 18Ml capacity, twin compartment SR on the site of the existing 103 year old SR. The £7.5m project has adopted a Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) approach, saving approximately £2m […]

Lee Tunnel - Flow Transfer System (2016)

Thames Water’s Lee Tunnel will create a cleaner, healthier River Thames by capturing combined sewer overflows at Abbey Mills Pumping Station, preventing 16 million tonnes of stormwater and sewage from being discharged into the River Lee each year. Up to 385,000m3 of stormwater and sewage will be stored in the 7km long tunnel and transferred […]

Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme (2016)

Historically, Leeds has not benefited from formal flood defences and is sited in a catchment where the river can rise rapidly in response to rainfall. There are records of flooding dating from the 19th century and in the recent past; prior to the scheme commencing the river had come close to flooding Leeds city centre […]

National Grid Flood Resilience Programme (2016)

The flood events which occurred in the United Kingdom during the summer of 2007 resulted in a loss of essential services and infrastructure not seen since World War II. Reportedly, over half a million people were left without water or electricity supply, with the estimated cost of the events exceeding £3.2 billion in 2007 prices. […]

Swalecliffe Habitat Resilience Plan (2016)

Resilience is a key metric when developing, improving and managing habitat systems and their associated ecology across diverse coastal and urban environments where wastewater treatment plants reside. The study site for this paper is located within the Thanet Coast Biodiversity Opportunity Area (BOA) and Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) Impact Risk Zone for the […]

Tideway East - Challenges (2016)

London’s sewerage system was designed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette in the 1850s, for a population of four million people. While the Victorian sewers are still in excellent working condition, they are struggling to cope with the demands of the city’s growth. Every year, tens of millions of tonnes of raw sewage pour into the River […]

Mott MacDonald continues water sector growth with the appointment of two industry experts

Mott MacDonald has recruited Anthony Crawford and Dr Karen Murrell to its UK Water Consultancy business. Both will provide significant technical expertise, enhancing the substantial capability already delivered to the sector by the business.

Mott MacDonald and Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water sign digital decarbonisation agreement

The global engineering, management and development consultancy Mott MacDonald will be supporting Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water’s (DCWW) ambitious decarbonisation goals.

Mott MacDonald secures new AMP8 Framework Agreement with United Utilities

Mott MacDonald has been appointed by United Utilities as one of three partners who will deliver its new Design Development Partner Framework, alongside AtkinsRéalis and Stantec.

Mott MacDonald co-authors new guidance on Biodiversity Net Gain

The Environmental Industries Commission (EIC) has released a new guide to nature policies, co-authored by Mott MacDonald

Mott MacDonald to support Southern Water in its largest ever investment programme

Mott MacDonald has been appointed as a major local supplier to Southern Water’s AMP8 Professional Services framework

Mott MacDonald appointed to Dwr Cymru Welsh Water AMP8 Consultancy Framework

Mott MacDonald (MM) has been selected as one of four consultants on Dwr Cymru Welsh Water’s AMP8 Engineering Consultancy Services (ECS) Framework. The consultancy will use its experience of established expertise in the sector and global experience to deliver the work.

Mott MacDonald to support the Environment Agency make informed investment decisions

Mott MacDonald has been selected to support the Environment Agency on its Mapping & Modelling Framework, for a period of up to four years beginning in May 2024.