Work will start early next year on the the project in East Ham which will provide an extensive overhaul of the Folkestone Road Pumping Station – one of four strategic pumping stations that reinforce flows along the Northern Outfall Sewer which feeds into Beckton Sewage Treatment Works.

The Barhale team will initially carry out investigations to understand the control philosophy, “storm conditions” behaviour and telemetry at the pumping station as part of a detailed design phase.

Main works will replace the pumping station’s transformers, generators, storm pumps and EICA integration with new Motor Control Centres.

Barhale design and engineering manager Ben Connis said: “Folkestone Road is a vital part of the infrastructure supporting Beckton Sewage Treatment Works – one of the largest sewage facilities in Europe.

“Beckton is basically serving most of North and East London so each of the four supporting pumping stations performs a critical role.

“We are going first into a ECI phase which will give us the opportunity to engineer out some of the operating issues and to ensure that the replacement strategy will make the most of better equipment with modern control systems – ultimately delivering a significantly more robust and resilient system for residents of the capital.

“Having already been involved in the upgrade works at Beckton Sewage Treatment Works, mainly in preparation to accept the flows from the Thames Tideway Tunnel, it’s a real feather in our caps to also be selected by Thames Water to upgrade the infrastructure leading to the treatment works.”

The principal works are expected to take around 18 months with completion in October 2023.