Tag Archives: water

Mike Winney died in 2007. This is written by his close former colleague Ty Byrd.

Mike was a highly experienced reporter with many fine stories to his name but the pinnacle of his achievement did not involve words, it was a drawing. A drawing that illustrated much better than any…

On 23 May 1984, an explosion tore apart the Abbeystead valve house at the recently-completed Lune-Wyre water transfer scheme in Lancashire, killing 16 of a party of visitors and leaving many more seriously injured. It is the only incident I can recall of a civil (or structural) engineering failure in…

1972 – Tarbela dam – Pakistan The 1972 collapse of irrigation and power tunnels on one of the world’s largest dams was caused by scour and poor design but was the first of several collapses that affected the project over the next three years. 1973 – Rio-Niteroi Bridge – Brazil…

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee as announced the appointment of Iain Coucher as the new chair of Ofwat, which is the independent economic regulator of water services in England and Wales.

Coucher brings broad infrastructure experience to the role. He has previously held the chief executive role at…

Stonehaven: Other factors to blame? I believe it is rash for the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) report to conclude that the cause of the Stonehaven rail crash in August 2020 was due to “shoddy construction” by the contractor. It was probably, however, a major contributor. I have not seen…

Fast broadband will run through water pipes in parts of South Yorkshire as part of plans to get better internet access to people quicker.

New proposals to accelerate the rollout of broadband without digging up roads would see fibre-optic cables deployed through 17km of live drinking water mains between Barnsley and…

The government has launched a consultation into its Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, which outlines a step change in how water companies tackle the number of discharges of untreated sewage.

Under the new plans, water companies will face strict limits on when they can use storm overflows and must completely eliminate…

Wessex Water is pushing ahead with offsite manufacturing with the help of digital technology.

Digital tools used on a water treatment plant upgrade have provided a springboard for Wessex Water to explore the potential of new offsite construction approaches. Wessex Water principal digital engineer Paul Verner explains that the real push…

The Francisco Street Reservoir now serves as a source of useful non-potable water at a park for the local community, thanks to a stormwater collection system underneath.

Francisco Street reservoir was the first large reservoir in San Francisco, California when originally built in 1859. Decommissioned in the 1950s, the site was…

National Infrastructure Commission chair Sir John Armitt has welcomed the “ambitious targets” water companies have set to reduce drought risk in England.

He said this week’s publication of the fifth and final draft plan from the regional water resource groups represented an “important milestone” in efforts to achieve long-term resilience. The…