Mechanical & Electrical Engineering Damar has been offering engineering services to the construction industry for over 12 years. The name of the company has recently been changed to reflect the diversity of it’s background. Damar Group’s annual turnover is anticipated to be £10 million in this fiscal year. The Engineering Division works for all the major water utilities in the Southwest including Wessex Water, Southern Water, South West Water and Severn Trent. Other clients include Atkins, Thames Water, Crest Nicholas, Virgin Atlantic, Highways Agency, Network Rail and Bristol Water. We have worked as far a field as Glasgow, Penzance, Bury St Edmonds and in one case Hong Kong. Projects we have worked on include the Millennium Dome, Glasgow Airport, Bournemouth Airport and Hong Kong International Airport. Working on our projects is a team of M&E Site Managers who have vast range of experience and have attended the CITB Site Management Safety Training Scheme. A separate section of the Engineering Division works on confined space search and rescue projects, which have included shafts up to 100 metres deep for Bristol City Council and Thames Water. Wessex Water Maundown Filter Automation ’Maundown Water Treatment works is a 58ml/d plant supplying one eighth of the total portable water production for Wessex Water and supplies approximately 200 000 people of Taunton. Filter treatment is from 16 rapid gravity sand filters, 8 of which are located within the filter building and 8 are external. Damar Group were originally appointed to carry out all mechanical and electrical work and associated civil engineering to automate all 80 operating valves on the 8 internal filters. As the project progressed, Wessex Water decided to further enhance the refurbishment programme at the site and we were instructed to carry out additional works as follows: In order to ensure reliability of the entire filter system, we were asked to replace all valves on the 8 external filters and to provide Rotork actuators. As an established partnering contractor Damar Group were asked to take control of the major civil demolition and rebuilding programme of the chemical storage and dosing area. To replace the 600 dia asbestos feed pipe from Wimbleball reservoir laid in tunnel with a new ductile pipeline. This was undertaken whilst maintaining continual operation of the filter works without disruption. We replaced the heating system inside the filter hall by installing replacement of over 40 radiant heaters We constructed a new sludge holding tank including automated valves, integrated level signals to inhibit the filter backwash system and to provide alarms. Built on the side of a hill, Maundown works was constructed with a complex and restricted access basement and we were required to lay all cabling through this area to reduce the visual impact of the cable within the filter building. The system we provided consisted of new MCC suit designed to control the automated backwash of the 16 filters, plus the associated ancillary monitoring, control and telemetry equipment which relayed information to the strategic distribution centre in Bath. The system was controlled by a Mitsubishi Plc with software developed by the Client. The MCC controlled all aspects of the filter operation from chemical dosing through to the control of stored waste sludges from the backwash process. ABB provided flow and turbidity monitors while level control was from Milltronics. The filters are allowed to queue in a controlled programme allowing the site to operate 24/7 without permanent night time attendance. Project Pictures Wessex Water Maundown Filter Automation