My first project with Kier on 01 August 1985 was a project that had just started at Thames Water at Hampton. The site set up was relatively small but it turned out to be a very profitable Contract for Kier. At this time, Kier were extremely efficient (and probably still are) at keeping records and knowing their market. The director in charge of Kier in the region at the time was Martin Scarth.
The waterworks at Hampton were built in the middle of the 1800's and the project was to add features to secondary filter beds 17 to 29 and to refurbish beds 8 and 9.
Kier was given possession of one of the 17 to 29 filter beds and it constructed a new concrete ramp into the bed to enable access for skimming of the sand. In the middle of the filter bed a chamber was constructed and a new channel installed across the bed. Outside of the filter bed a cover was broken out of a chamber and the valve inside was taken out and was refurbished. A refurbished valve from the previous bed was installed. This work required the services of a diving team and a crane.
Whilst carrying out these works, Kier was instructed to carry out additional works including repairing the walls of the filter beds where the gunnite had split. Kier also persuaded Thames Water to handover more beds at any one time, with adjacent beds being filled higher with water. The result of these two factors (increased pressure on the walls due to more water and repairing the splits in the gunnite) one way completely gave way and collapsed.
Due to this collapse, Kier also had to rebuild the wall. For the other walls between the beds, Kier had to install a concrete capping on the walls to help stabilise them. This was all carried out in clean conditions, with the adjacent scaffolding being covered in polythene.
Filter beds 8 and 9 required complete refurbishment. The sand was all removed and the underdrain system was broken out. The concrete bed was patched and repaired in places and an additional drainage channel was installed too. The drainage system was then installed using a metal collapsible formwork system and no fines concrete. The walls to the beds were injected with resin behind the walls and the gunnite repaired too.
The company name at that time was French Kier Construction.
After filter beds 8 and 9 were completed the other filter beds had become repetitive and I asked to be moved from the project to something different.
