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Costain

Costain works with water and wastewater companies to shape, create and deliver pioneering solutions that improve water quality, affordability and resilience.

Population growth, regulatory changes, energy costs and climate change are having a dramatic impact on water usage. The national approach to managing water supply is changing to meet these challenges. The Government and industry regulator are tasked with cutting wastage and preserving an increasingly valuable resource, while protecting consumers from higher water bills.

The water sector team offers:

Expert input into consultation documents, close work with Government and water companies and innovative delivery, all of which help to minimise costs to water users while meeting national investment needs.
A manufacturing mindset: programme optimisation advisory services, standard product development, production controls, whole-life costing and lean delivery processes.
Cross-sector best practice: we provide value for our clients by drawing on experience from across the company and by working closely with our decarbonisation experts to drive regional growth strategies.
Technology integration: working with some of the UK’s leading asset and data analytics organisations we analyse large volumes of real time data to create greater benefits for our customers through optimised maintenance, pump operation, energy and chemical usage.

Current water industry frameworks:

Anglian Water – Strategic Pipeline Alliance
Severn Trent
Southern Water – CMDP JV
Thames Water
United Utilities – Maintenance Service Provider
Yorkshire Water – Technical Services

Horsham New WwTW (2024)

Southern Water’s multi-million pound upgrade to boost the water quality of the River Arun and cater for the significant growth forecast

Hathershaw Fields CSO & Bardsley WwPS (2023)

Improving water quality in the River Medlock by installing new powered screens at existing sites in Oldham, Greater Manchester

Clough Bottom Impounding Reservoir (2023)

Clough Bottom Impounding Reservoir (IR) is an earth-fill embankment reservoir located on the eastern edge of the West Pennine Moors, around 4km north east of Rawtenstall, Lancashire. The reservoir is currently used for public water supply and compensation flows. The reservoir was formed by the construction of an earth embankment across the Whitewell Brook and […]

Birds Park Impounding Reservoir (2023)

Birds Park Reservoir is no longer used for water supply and is enjoyed by the community for recreation. Constructed around 1850, the dam is an earth embankment, 45m long and 13.8m high, perched above a residential area near Kendal, Cumbria. There are no historical drawings, and limited site investigation data was available but it was […]

Rivington Upper Impounding Reservoir (2023)

United Utilities and Managed Service Provider (MSP) Costain have delivered improvements to the existing spillway at Rivington Upper Impounding Reservoir in Lancashire. The team worked collaboratively, undertaking a complex construction programme in challenging conditions, while managing the operational needs of the reservoir site and popular recreational area. The main objective was to upgrade the existing […]

Southern Water WINEP (2023)

To ensure compliance with tighter Environment Agency permits for phosphorus removal, the number of phosphorus reduction schemes have quadrupled since AMP5 and is seen by some as one of the biggest challenges ever to face the water industry. The Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP) is a programme of actions that water companies are required […]

Anglian Water's Strategic Pipeline Alliance: Norwich to Wymondham Pipeline (2023)

Anglian Water’s Strategic Pipeline Alliance (SPA) is delivering one of the largest infrastructure projects in AMP7; a new water main network, hundreds of kilometres long, which will allow Anglian Water to move water around the region from areas of surplus to areas of deficit, future-proofing supply to customers. The network is being constructed in 11 […]

Finham Advanced Anaerobic Digestion (2023)

Finham STW, situated near Coventry in the West Midlands, is Severn Trent’s fifth largest wastewater treatment works and treats over 115 megalitres of effluent a day from half a million people. The works processes indigenous sludge on site as well as accepting exports from local, satellite sites, producing final effluent, ‘cake’ and biogas as outputs. […]

Tideway East - Earl Pumping Station (2022)

A complex ground improvement scheme has been designed and installed at Earl Pumping Station (EARPS), one of Tideway East’s sites, to enable the excavation and permanent works for the combined sewage overflow (CSO) chamber to be carried out. Challenges such as local contamination, site congestion, costs and time scale had to be overcome by delivering […]

Dean Clough Lower Impounding Reservoir (2022)

Dean Clough Lower Impounding Reservoir (IR) is a Category A, earth-fill embankment reservoir, located approximately 6km north-east of Blackburn in Lancashire. It is currently used to provide storage for public water supply. It was formed by the construction of an earth embankment across the Dean Brook river and is the lower reservoir in a cascade […]

Heaton Park Reservoir Liner Improvements (2022)

Heaton Park Reservoir is located within Heaton Park, approximately 5 miles north of Manchester city centre. The reservoir is over 90 years old and has the capacity of 2,800,000m3 at top water level. The reservoir was previously used to store treated water for the Manchester Ring Main from Haweswater and Thirlmere aqueducts. However, since the […]

Anglian Water’s Strategic Pipeline Alliance (2022)

While the east of England is attracting people like no other part of the UK, it is also the driest area of the country – a threat to its success that Anglian Water is determined to overcome. The Strategic Pipeline Alliance (SPA) comprises, Farrans, Mott MacDonald Bentley, Costain and Jacobs, who are delivering one of […]

United Utilities Maintenance Service Provider Framework (2022)

As the UK’s largest listed water company, United Utilities aspires to ensure resilience of its network to the effects of climate change, improving the quality of wastewater effluent and providing a reliable and wholesome drinking water supply to its customers. To help drive greater efficiency and innovation in its network, United Utilities appointed Costain as […]

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 […]

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 […]

Hailsham South WwTW (2022)

The town of Hailsham in East Sussex has been experiencing significant housing growth in recent years. To accommodate local housebuilding targets and protect the environment, Southern Water has invested £30m to upgrade the Hailsham North and Hailsham South Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTWs) using innovative technology. Upgrading these works was necessary to comply with a stricter […]

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 […]

Highworth WwTW (2018)

Highworth Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTW) is located at Pentylands Lane, Highworth to the northeast of Swindon. The treatment works currently serves a population of approximately 10,000 customers, with an average daily flow of 1,720m3 per day and a peak flow of 55 l/s. The works is Royal HaskoningDHV’s first full-scale Nereda plant in the UK. […]

Woolston WwT Scheme - Part 5 (2020)

In October 2020, the finishing touches were undertaken at Woolston Wastewater Treatment Works, completing Southern Water’s £100m scheme to transform its works in Southampton, Hampshire. From the waterside, the new age space-like silver cladding that dominates the site is a much different picture from how the site has looked over the last few years when […]

Woolston WwT Scheme - Part 4 (2019)

Woolston WwTW uses a conventional activated sludge plant (ASP), built in 1966, treating sewage flows from part of the Southampton conurbation, serving a population of approximately 62,000 people. The site occupies an area of 1.26 hectares. The existing sewerage system which feeds into the WwTW collects both wastewater and stormwater from the Woolston catchment area. […]

Woolston WwT Scheme - Part 3 (2018)

Built in 1966, Woolston Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTW) uses a conventional Activated Sludge Plant (ASP) to treat sewage flows from part of the Southampton conurbation. Serving a population of approximately 62,000, the site occupies an area of 1.26 hectares. The existing sewerage system which feeds into the WwTW collects both wastewater and stormwater from the […]

Woolston WwT Scheme - Part 2 (2017)

Built in 1966, Southern Water’s Woolston WwTW uses conventional activated sludge plant (ASP) to treat sewage flows from part of the Southampton conurbation, serving a population of approximately 62,000 people. The site occupies an area of 1.26 hectares. The existing sewerage system which feeds into the WwTW collects both wastewater and stormwater from the Woolston […]

Ledbury & Brockhampton STWs (2021)

Both Ledbury and Brockhampton are medium sized works (c15,000 PE) serving the catchments of Ledbury and Cheltenham respectively. Each site was subject to a first-time phosphorus permit with Brockhampton receiving higher flow to full treatment and a tighter BOD permit, and Ledbury having significant growth projected in the catchment. Both sites both required new tertiary […]

Rugby STW - BioMag Plant (2020)

Rugby STW is situated on the south bank of the River Avon, approximately 1km north of the town of Rugby in Warwickshire. Final effluent from Rugby STW is discharged into the River Avon and needs to meet permits set by the Water Framework Directive (WFD). It provides sewage treatment to a population of circa 107,975. […]

Barston STW (2019)

Barston Sewage Treatment Works (STW) is one of Severn Trent’s medium sized treatment works. The site is located to the east of Birmingham in the West Midlands. The STW treats foul water for the catchment serving Solihull, Shirley, Knowle and other outlying conurbations. It currently serves a population of 39,741 which will increase to 76,036. […]

Finham STW Activated Sludge Plant (2019)

Finham Sewage Treatment Works (STW) serves a population equivalent of 430,470 for Coventry and its environs. The existing processes include preliminary treatment, primary settlement, a plug flow activated sludge plant (ASP) and final settlement tanks. The site is also a sludge reception centre and has the capability to treat indigenous and imported sludges. The sludge […]

Mythe WTW (2019)

The Mythe Water Treatment Works is situated on the east bank of the River Severn, approximately half a mile north of the town of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire and provides drinking water to population of circa 400,000. Mythe WTW came to national attention in July 2007 when the site was partially inundated with flood water from […]

Telscombe Lower Portobello PS & Screening Works (2021)

The original treatment works was built in the 1970s in an area carved out of the cliff face. It comprised a screening plant for grit and fat removal, before flows are pumped via a hand-dug long sea outfall 2.5km out to sea. This outfall replaced the original Victorian short sea outfall built in 1874, although […]

Scaynes Hill WwTW (2019)

Scaynes Hill Wastewater Treatment Works serves a population of approximately 38,000 from Haywards Heath and surrounding areas in West Sussex, with capacity to treat up to 337 l/s of incoming wastewater flow. The treatment works also receives imported cess via tanker from customers not connected to the mains drainage system, plus liquid sludge via tanker […]

Shieldhall Tunnel (2016)

Construction of the Shieldhall Tunnel, the biggest investment in the Glasgow wastewater network since Victorian times, is well underway. Once complete, it will improve river water quality and the natural environment of the River Clyde and its tributaries, enable the Greater Glasgow area to grow and develop, alleviate sewer flooding key locations and deal with […]

Nine Elms, Battersea Growth & SuDS (2018)

The Nine Elms redevelopment area within Battersea includes 21,000 new dwellings, office, leisure and retail space creating 8000 new jobs including the new US Embassy, a relocated New Covent Garden Market site and the Northern Line extension. An integrated water management study completed by Thames Water (TW) in partnership with the Greater London Authority, ARUP […]

Margate & Broadstairs Wastewater Pumping Stations (2017)

In 2008, Southern Water completed significant improvements to the wastewater treatment infrastructure serving the North Thanet catchments of Margate and Broadstairs to meet the requirements of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. The existing marine head works at Joss Bay, Broadstairs and at North Foreland, Margate were upgraded to process screened flows and remove grit, […]

Netheridge STW (2017)

Netheridge Sewage Treatment Works (STW) is one of Severn Trent Water’s key sites in the south west of the region serving the city of Gloucester, discharging final effluent to the River Severn. The works currently serves a population equivalent of 197,940 which is predicted to increase to 218,815 by the 2034-35 design horizon. The site […]