Sykes Pumps is helping to enable the construction of a new bridge in the Lake District village of Pooley Bridge, after the 18th century structure the village was named after was destroyed by Storm Desmond in 2015.
The village has been served by a temporary bridge for the past five years, but now Eric Wright Civil Engineering (EWCE) is constructing a new bridge for Cumbria County Council, restoring a permanent crossing and creating a landmark in the same location as the original crossing. Pre-fabricated off site for modular construction in four sections, the new stainless steel structure at Pooley Bridge will be the first of its kind in the UK.
After replacing the temporary road bridge with a temporary foot bridge, the EWCE team needed a dry and safe work area to remove the remains of the original bridge abutments from the River Eamont and build a coffer dam to enable the construction of new reinforced concrete abutments. This involved excavating to a depth of 2.5 metres below the water level, requiring a reliable overpumping solution capable of managing variable flows and keeping the work area dry, even if water levels rise due to heavy rainfall.
Sykes Pumps has provided two Super Wispaset 100 super silenced 4” diesel pumps, each with a maximum flow rate of 45 Litres per second. Located on the River’s east bank, the pumps are fully-bunded and noise-attenuated to minimise the project’s environmental impact, while offering sufficient capacity to cope with any leaks in the coffer dam and prevent the risk of it being breached. Sykes Pumps has also provided two Silt Away units, one connected to each pump, to remove silt from the water extracted from the river and ensure the water meets the cleanliness standards put in place by the Environment Agency when it is returned to the water course downstream.
The project has been supplied by Sykes Pumps’ Penrith depot and the hire contract includes fortnightly maintenance and servicing visits to ensure the equipment operates at optimum efficiency at all times. Pumps and ancillary equipment are expected to remain on site throughout the bridge construction programme, which is due to complete in summer 2020.
Shaun Murphy from EWCE comments: “This is an important project in more ways than one; it’s a first for this type of bridge construction in the UK, it’s restoring a vital local access route and it’s creating a new landmark for the village.
“We have used Sykes Pumps on many previous projects and trusted the company’s expertise to provide an overpumping solution that’s safe, environmentally-responsible and provides an optimised installation for the various phases of demolition, temporary works and construction. Sykes Pumps have provided us with an efficient and easy-to-use set up which is helping the project to run smoothly.”
