Srowland Raw Water Storage Reservoirs
Earthworks
Location: Athy, Co. Kildare
Client: BAM Civil/Veolia
Project Value: €25 million
Completed: 2013
Country: Ireland
The Srowland Water Treatment Plant is a crucial part of of Kildare County Council’s water supply strategy. It is located beside the River Barrow about 3 km northwest of Athy. Water is extracted from the river and stored in two 60 million litre capacity raw water storage reservoirs on the site for treatment. A new treatment plant uses a highly innovative treatment system to deliver 38.4 million litres of drinking water a day, which is approximtaely 40% of the current water supply needs in Co. Kildare.
AGL Consulting were specialist geotechnical consultants to the Bam/Veolia JV on a Design-Build Operate contract to construct two 60 million litre capacity water storage reservoirs as part of the River Barrow Extraction Scheme. The reservoirs were approximately 125 x 85 m in plan area and retained up to 7.0 m of water with 0.6 m freeboard. They were constructed partially in cut and partially in fill with earth embankments up to 6 m high around the perimeter. The interior of the reservoirs was lined to prevent leakage.
Our scope of work included the following:
- The design of the reservoir embankments including the necessary seepage, slope stability and hydrostatic uplift analyses for the design steady state, rapid drawdown, flood and maintenance conditions.
- Preparation of the contract specifications to allow the use of on-site excavated material in the reservoir embankments, including specialist criteria for grading, strength and compaction of low-permeability fill.
- A drainage design for control of seepage and hydrostatic uplift pressures below the lining system.
- Filter design to control internal erosion within the reservoir embankments.
- Construction monitoring supervision and preparation of the Construction Quality Assurance Records for the Earthworks.
