- Project
- UK Paper Mill
Innovative monitoring solution protects water quality during M27 works
M27 Swanwick
Project Overview
| Location |
|
|---|---|
| Sector | Highways |
| Products |
When concrete was found in an underground chamber beneath the M27 motorway, our specialist monitoring capabilities were utilised to aid with the associated drainage works. The advanced monitoring solutions supplied and installed performed a multifunctional service, ensuring water quality wasn’t impacted throughout the duration of works.
Our solution
While the client’s primary focus was on the risk of concrete dust escaping the network during drilling operations, the real time data provided by our three multi-parameter water quality sensors are also measuring PH, salinity, resistivity, the level of dissolved oxygen, Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP), temperature and more. While the conventional approach to measuring water levels within water courses involves installing a relatively bulky radar detector secured to a bridge or other structure, the devices installed monitor levels by measuring the change in water pressure from within an open-ended plastic pipe positioned below the surface.
Steven Howell, Monitoring Engineering at Mabey Hire, explains: “BAM Morgan Sindall JV is fully committed to upholding the highest standards on environmental impacts. Our expert monitoring team was able to quickly come up with a proposal which covered all the parameters required during the wider remedial works.
“It was necessary to integrate the sensors with our data-loggers, so that the client could have access to real time information through our Insite portal. All the sensors were installed in early May 2025 and bracketed to ground stakes. The hire is scheduled to last for 12 weeks while the removal works are being carried out.”
Alex Folwell, Senior Project Engineer for Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, comments: “Our work involves coring and breaking out concrete from a very deep drainage chamber, which was constructed to take surface water run-off as part of the M27 Smart Motorway project. However, this became blocked due to the concrete present within it, raising the need for the safe disposal of the material.
“To facilitate this, we needed to have sensors at the two inlet points to the drainage network and the single outlet in order to ensure that we are not letting any of the concrete slurry exit from the drainage network. This is being done using a temporary works pond, which is then ‘over-pumped’ into two settlement tanks before being gradually discharged back into the stream having been treated for pH and particulates. Having the sensor where the discharge takes place gives our team real time monitoring updates on exactly what is going back into the stream, ensuring compliance with local regulations.
Get in touchRelated news and projects
- Project
- Kennington Bridge, Oxfordshire
Propping and monitoring ensures safety of key transport link
- Project
- Felindre WTW, South Wales
Safeguarding water treatment assets with structural monitoring
Give us a call
For all project specific design and technical enquiries, please contact your local service team.
Send us an email
If you want to talk to us about your project, send us an email and a brief outline of how we can help and we’ll be in touch
[email protected]
“Mabey Hire is one of our go-to suppliers and I have established a good working relationship with their Sales Manager over a number of years on various projects, so it was logical to call on their expertise in this sensitive situation. The work is expected to take up to three months and, so far, everything is working perfectly. I can check up on the monitoring system through Mabey Hire’s Insite portal any time I want or set up alerts on my phone to tell me we if need to do something with our treatment system.”