A complex three-year project to secure Maidstone’s drinking water supplies has now been completed after sinkholes opened up at a key water supply site in Aylesford during September 2020.
The sunken site on Hermitage Lane has been brought back to life after millions of litres of water were lost in a matter of hours, triggering a chain of events and challenges that had not been experienced before in our history, and may never be again.
It resulted in a temporary shutdown of the site, with operational teams working swiftly to safely drain the remaining water from the storage tanks and reconfigure the drinking water supply network to redirect from other areas to maintain supply for homes and businesses.
In the weeks and months that followed, several specialist surveys were undertaken, including external drone surveys, CCTV, geophysical, laser scanning ground level monitoring and dynamic probing, with 250 ground investigation holes undertaken to build a detailed 3D model and develop complex repairs.
To maintain the county town’s supplies while repairs were made, a temporary water treatment works was built nearby in a matter of months to boost supplies.
The site was then brought back into operation, filling the voids with foam concrete and resin and achieving the target of having one of the tanks supplying customers again from March 2021.
Of the three drinking water tanks at the site, one was demolished, a second repaired and a third 10 million litre cell was split into two 4.8 million litre cells, increasing turnover and efficiency.
The restoration was completed in the autumn of 2023 and we received the Infrastructure Delivery Award at the Utility Week Awards in December, recognising the work in partnership with DDS Contracting and AtkinsRéalis.
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