Water utilities and developers

Mechanical and electrical

Pumping stations

Halcrow has a wealth of experience and vast involvement in the design of pumping stations. Pumping station designs range from small booster sites to water treatment plants that combine on-site/remote boreholes and/or service reservoirs through to sewage treatment works

Whether the project is to design a new site or refurbish an existing works, our engineers can offer a complete solution.

Newly constructed water treatment works

Our in-house engineers can provide consultation and design from the civil construction through to M&E, pipework design and full hydraulic/surge analysis. Fully automated control can be applied, including remote control through supervisory control systems (SCADA) to the level required by the customer. Click here for our ICA section

Our civil engineers have provided many structures differing in shape and size to suit the needs of the application. Our experience ranges from in-land stations to those used for flood alleviation, situated by estuaries or coastline. Designs include simple to complex multi pump solutions.

	Our electrical and ICA engineers consider best drive and control solutions for the pumand system and incorporate these into MCC designs. This together with the knowledge of harmonics and G5/4 requirements allows us to realise the design in a safe and compliant way. Emergency standby power requirements can also be considered. See our power generation capability.
Retro-fit duty/assist booster pump

When designing a complete solution for our clients, Halcrow’ engineers design with the environment in mind. Therefore the choice of material used for construction is considered right through to the economic use of power by incorporation of variable speed drives.

Other considerations would include the utilisation of renewable energy sources, noise and vibration, aesthetics and above all safety during design, construction and operation phases.

The hydraulic characteristics of many existing pipelines are unknown and over many years of service, the internal walls become lined reducing the internal diameter. This affects the pump efficiency causing whole life costs to increase.

To determine the system curve of any unknown or existing pumped system the hydraulic characteristics, pipeline detail and route are required.

Multi Pump Station incorporating Variable Speed Drives and Duty/Assist/Standby Pumps

Halcrow’ operations engineers are experienced in plotting existing pipelines routes and recording flow/pressure data with the use of GPS and sounding equipment and data loggers.

Mechanical engineers at Halcrow take this information and select the most appropriate pump in terms of the duty point, best efficiency point and whole life costs.

Alternatively the pumped system may also operate at various flow/pressure regimes. To accommodate such varied flow/pressure requirements our engineers can design for a multi pump solution that will achieve an all-round best efficiency point (BEP).

Pumping is an integral part of virtually every water network; in clean or waste water. It is more often than not that pumps installed as part of these projects see many years of service without maintenance.

Confirmation of how a system is working is vital for operation and maintenance. Early warning of a potential bearing failure can lead to tangible savings in terms of plant and process downtimes.

Halcrow has a wealth of experience in providing our clients with comprehensive pump testing through to full system audits. Our engineers offer advice in all areas of testing including:

	Pump efficiency testing
	Data logging
	Pumping station audits for M&E renewals

Halcrow carry out audits to clean and waste water sites. All tests are in accordance to the customer’s requirements and business use.

Further to the pump tests, results can show whether the plant instrumentation is operating correctly, of in need of recalibration. This will lead to a better managed system and possible further financial savings.

Pipework drawings can be carried out by our CAD team using the latest AutoCAD software in 2D or 3D.

Simple conceptual pipework layout plans plot the course for further 3D perspectives resulting in greater client understanding and clarity. For more detail of CAD work, click here to go to our CAD section.

Conceptual 2D pipework layouts

To determine the system curve of any unknown or existing pumped system the hydraulic characteristics, pipeline detail and route are required.

Halcrow’ operations engineers are experienced in plotting existing pipelines routes and recording flow/pressure data with the use of GPS and sounding equipment and data loggers.

Every section of pipework is designed and drawn, together with pipe schedules listing each component. Our mechanical and civil engineers develop a database predicting hydraulic losses encountered in different sections of the system according to the permissible flows and pipe material.

The pipeline networks are designed to minimise the encountered losses, thus keeping the efficiency of the system as high as possible. Any downturn in process flow is also considered; as is often the way with public consumer distribution systems.

	With the pipework developed to the greatest benefit for efficiency, life and construction costs our civil engineers consider the forces that are levied on the pipework and plant. Thrust block and restraint systems are designed for the impending forces that act upon joints and bends and pumps. (Thrust blocks shown in the above drawing are purely symbolic).
GAC Vessel pipework layout

As part of the design our engineers can develop long sections of existing or proposed pipeline routes and combined them with calculated hydraulic profiles. These are particularly useful for determining pump criteria.

The design for the storage of water takes many forms. Two common place methods are service reservoirs built either wholly above or below ground or semi submerged. The other form of storage is an above ground “Braithwaite” style tank.

Our engineers can specify the type of tank best suited to your needs together with support requirements and any containment. Alternatively our in house Civil engineers can design and specify a reinforced concrete service reservoir.

Halcrow engineers have also carried inspections of service reservoirs.

Primary control of a system can be through dedicated computers or embedded microprocessors. The design of the control system must include for the operator interface. This is a very important area, allowing the plant operators to understand exactly the status of the plant. Click here for our HMI and SCADA sections.

Halcrow ICA engineers are well versed in developing control philosophies. Due to the increasingly stringent control and safety requirements our engineers consider all the aspects of our customer’s requirements to ensure the correct level of protection and control for the user and plant.

In line with detailed design our engineers can progress the control philosophy into a functional design specification. This document details the full plant process with the employed control, including every level of protection with alarms. Our engineers are also highly experienced in hazard and operability (HAZOP) and hazards in construction (HAZCON) studies.