Integrated design-and-build company Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB) has scooped a prestigious award at the 2024 Ground Engineering Awards.
MMB’s ‘Newthorpe and Heanor Milnhay Sewage Treatment Works AMP7 Upgrades’ project was named best ‘UK Project with a Geotechnical Value of £500k-£1M’ at a ceremony attended by almost 900 ground engineering professionals at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House in London.
Collecting the trophy L-R: Category sponsor representative, Jamie Beech (Contract Manager), Paul Wilkinson (Site Agent), Harry Ollerton (Geotechnical Engineer), Mark Edmondson (Regional Geotechnical Practice Lead), Fiona Eady (Ground Engineering Lead, Severn Trent Water), Nia Kajastie (Editor, Ground Engineering Magazine).
The awards recognise the industry’s top achievements and identified the MMB scheme as ‘stand out’ in terms of innovation, quality, sustainability, health and safety and value engineering.
Delivered with Severn Trent, the infrastructure upgrades to the aging Heanor Milnhay Sewage Treatment Works (STW) in Nottingham involve repurposing the existing STW to create additional storm storage which will reduce storm spills to the nearby River Erewash. This will provide increased resilience to the local community to account for future population growth, by transferring flows to a new treatment works extension at Newthorpe STW.
The project has faced several significant geotechnical challenges, including legacy coal mining risks, management of high groundwater, and construction on problematic alluvial soils. Close collaboration between MMB and Severn Trent Water initiated early discussions with The Coal Authority about mitigating the risks associated with the legacy mineworks, resulting in consent given to install pipework in a high risk area which was carried out successfully by MMB.
From the earliest stages of the project, steps have been taken to significantly reduce embodied carbon using PAS2080 principles, as well as deliver commercial savings. The client delivery team proactively worked with MMB to identify opportunities to reduce carbon, such as lessening the thickness of flotation slabs (typically concrete-heavy) by 65% in order to manage the high groundwater risks.
MMB has successfully delivered a ‘build better’ solution by re-servicing existing structures, utilising digital solutions to best develop ground models in order to design out risk and adopting site won materials for reuse to construct biodiverse wildlife habitats, avoiding unnecessary carbon-heavy and costly off-site disposal.
The judges were impressed by the team’s “successful challenges and deviations from the client’s standard practices and MMB’s back-to-basics pragmatic approach, delivering a sustainable value engineered solution.”
Mark Edmondson, Regional Geotechnical Practice Lead for MMB, commented,
"Winning this award is a fantastic result: not only is it the first national award for the project and first GE award for MMB, but it reflects how our Geotechnical Practice (and other Practices) can deliver real value for our projects and clients.”
MMB’s Practices are networks that bring together colleagues via common areas of interest, to learn and share knowledge and best practice ideas and drive our excellence agenda. The Geotechnics Practice comprises geotechnical engineers, engineering geologists and other specialist disciplines, all skilled in managing ground risks and creating opportunities. Collaborating with key project stakeholders, the Practice helps to enable efficient, innovative and sustainable solutions that support the management of common ground risks.
Learn more about JN Bentley, MMB and JBA Bentley on our website.
