Ready for the storm

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NEARLY 4,000m³ of a storm water management system has been installed for a supermarket company’s new packing plant in Somerset.
Located next to a Morrisons’ distribution centre in Bridgwater, the construction project covers more than 20 acres, accommodating a 150,000 sq. ft. packing warehouse, a 128,000 sq. ft. fresh warehouse and an 81,000 sq. ft. produce warehouse. And following its experience at a Morrisons in Newport, South Wales, civil engineering consultant BSCP approved the use of the GEOlight storm water management system from SDS.
Poor ground conditions in that part of Somerset meant the dig for the attenuation system could only be three metres deep but with the GEOlight requiring only 600mm cover above the tanks for the service road carrying articulated trucks, it meant that the attenuation tanks could be deeper and did not require such a large footprint across the site.
Roy Fowler, civil engineer at BSCP, explained: “The site is very flat and the outfall extremely shallow so the GEOlight system has proved to be a practical solution to meet the contractor’s requirements.”
Chris Looney, project director at main contractors McLaren Construction, was also happy with the results. “With the three-metre dig limitation we were still able to meet the attenuation figures required in the flood risk assessment. We were also impressed with the recycled content of the GEOlight system.”
SDS has calculated there was a total saving on carbon footprint of 35.5 tonnes of carbon, the figure taking into account that the system is made from recycled post-consumer material instead of virgin plastics.
The system is composed of an ultra lightweight honeycombed preformed modular structure made from recycled PVC which provides an underground storage facility for the application of storm water attenuation or infiltration.

The system being installed at Morrison’s in Somerset.