3 December 2013

A visit from Severn Trent’s Customer Operations Service Centre (COSC) team gave Costain people at Frankley Water Treatment Works a chance to engage with key stakeholders.

The COSC team controls the Severn Trent network and deals with customers’ supply/sewer queries and problems. Ten of its members spent half-a-day at Frankley Water, where Costain is carrying out a £20 million modernisation of the site’s infrastructure. The work, which includes the construction of a new pumping station, is taking place while the treatment works are fully operational.

“The COSC staff had an enjoyable and informative morning. We were able to talk through and walk through our works and explain how it will benefit their interface with Frankley WTW when it is complete," said Jay Standen, Costain Delivery Manager. “They were particularly impressed with the amount of planning and preparation we carry out to ensure our work doesn’t interrupt or affect customers’ water supplies.”

Severn Trent’s Network Control Manager, Mark Perry, commented: “This was a great opportunity for COSC Network Control to see the scale of the works being carried out on site. It also provided a first-hand opportunity for my team to see the assets that they have been risk assessing against to minimise risk to our customers.

“We were extremely impressed with the focus on health and safety. It was good to see our business partners using Severn Trent’s ‘Safer, Better, Faster’ approach in day-to-day activity.”

Jay said Costain staff also found the visit useful: “The COSC team is a key stakeholder for us and we want its buy-in. This was a great opportunity for us to meet face to face and understand more about how the COSC team operates and vice-versa.”

Work at Frankley Water is progressing well; recent milestones include two successful major connections to the distribution network. The construction of the high-level pumping station structure is now well underway, as are preparations for the installation of all electrics early next year. The project is due to finish in March 2015, when the new pumping station will take over from the Victorian pumping station operating today.

Further visits by COSC staff to Frankley Water are planned, said Jay. “There will soon be access to the pumping station and we are hoping the COSC team will be able to visit us again then and see firsthand the assets it will be operating remotely from the control centre.”

 

Ends