Barhale, in collaboration with Thames Water, has successfully completed the major upgrade of a vital trunk main at Fortis Green in North London. The £16.8M project strengthens network resilience and protects customer supplies for more than 35,000 properties in North London. It has been delivered under Thames Water’s AMP7 Trunk Main programme, which targets critical assets across the capital where failure could cause severe disruption. Barhale worked closely with Thames Water to replace 2.4 kilometres of aging 24” steel trunk main using a combination of micro-tunnelling and open cut trenching techniques. Extensive collaboration throughout the project lifecycle led to a significant revision to the reference solution, moving the existing pipeline away from the A406 North Circular Road – and roughly 16M annual vehicle movements – to eliminate potential traffic delays and reduce disruption for residents during construction. Mark Taylor, Thames Water’s Director of Delivery from London Infrastructure emphasised the criticality of building resilience into the network. “Population growth and climate change are putting increased pressure on water infrastructure,” he said. “While Fortis Green was primarily a project to address a critical asset reaching the end of its natural life, it also presented an opportunity to upgrade part of the network and strengthen its resilience.” Shane Gorman, Barhale’s Water Director (Southern Region) highlighted the importance of the project’s successful delivery. “Thanks to our extensive modelling and changes to the reference design we have been able to improve the capacity and the dynamic flow performance of the pipeline,” he said. “The re-engineering of the solution also enabled Barhale to achieve a 14.9% reduction in cost over the reference solution and significant carbon savings of 10,800tCO2e. This project is a strong example of how strategic engineering and early collaboration can deliver sustainable, high-value outcomes.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

Partnership has already delivered multi million-pound savings through faster customer issue resolution, reduced ODI penalties, and smarter asset lifecycle management Vyntelligence (Vyn®), the market-leading Agentic Video Intelligence platform, today announces a major expansion of its partnership with Northumbrian Water (NWG), one of the UK’s largest holding companies for water supply, sewerage, and wastewater industries. The collaboration will scale across NWG’s North East Network operations, achieving total asset optimisation with video intelligence. This comes at a time when the UK water industry prepares for its most fundamental regulatory period in decades. The AMP8 cycle, supported by Ofwat’s £104bn investment framework, presents the water sector with the challenge to push innovation across environmental standards, water supply security, asset resilience, and customer service, all while maintaining cost efficiency and regulatory compliance. Success in this ambitious period hinges on addressing two key opportunities: people and data. The industry is facing workforce challenges from an aging population and skills shortages, plus fragmented data systems continue to force reactive rather than predictive asset management. Resolving these challenges can unlock millions in operational inefficiencies and optimise existing asset lifecycles. By incorporating Vyntelligence into its workflows, NWG will be positioned to synergise people and data, pushing innovation across the AMP8 period. Vyntelligence replaces complex data interfaces with the most natural one: video. Field teams and customers document issues, asset maintenance needs and conditions through simple “show and tell” videos. These videos are processed using Agentic AI to extract actionable insights, trigger appropriate responses, and track resolution in near real-time. Vyntelligence and NWG will work together to achieve total asset optimisation with a focus on predictive maintenance, enhanced safety protocols, and intelligent resource allocation. Together, they have already demonstrated transformative impact over the last five years, achieving multimillion-pound savings through faster customer issue resolution, reduced ODI penalties, and smarter asset lifecycle management. “Vyntelligence are a valued partner who have helped us to transform the digital capabilities used daily by our field colleagues. Vyn assists our front-line teams to easily capture high-quality information in the field through their intelligent video workflow tool. Vyn’s embedded AI converts these video workflows into insights, and combined with data in our asset management systems, it creates a deeper understanding of our work and assets. Using video to capture to produce insights in this way has enabled field teams more time to focus on delivering the work for our customers, created opportunities for more innovative ways of working, and helped to ensure the safety of our colleagues. We are looking forward to continuing our successful partnership with Vyntelligence into AMP8 and expanding the use of the platform to support our ambitious asset investment programme,” said Martin Jackson, CIO at the Northumbrian Water Group. “Our long-standing partnership with Northumbrian Water is a testament to the transformative impact of Video Intelligence in solving the critical people and data challenges facing the UK water industry. We are proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with innovators like NWG, enabling total asset optimisation, empowering frontline teams to drive smarter decisions, faster fixes, and superior outcomes for AMP8 and beyond,” said Kapil Singhal, CEO at Vyntelligence. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

Kier has been awarded a £139 million contract by Severn Trent Water to deliver a substantial upgrade of the Wanlip sewage treatment works in Leicestershire – the third-largest facility of its kind in Severn Trent’s network. The extensive programme is designed to future-proof the site by increasing capacity and resilience while meeting more stringent environmental standards. Once complete, the upgraded facility will be capable of handling a 24% increase in dry weather flow and around 20% more full flow to treatment, addressing the demands of a growing population and improving water quality across the region. This milestone follows an early contractor involvement (ECI) phase, during which Kier completed enabling works and developed the detailed design in close collaboration with Severn Trent. Full-scale construction is now under way and is expected to conclude by 2028. Key elements of the scheme include: James Jesic, Severn Trent’s capital delivery and commercial director, commented: “It’s exceedingly rare for us to award contracts of this size and it really speaks to the scale of these upgrades at Wanlip and our commitment to improving our infrastructure, delivering a reliable high-performing service for our customers, and protecting the environment.” Andy Lingham, managing director of water at Kier Natural Resources, Nuclear & Networks, added: “This is a significant project for Severn Trent, and we’re pleased to be bringing our expertise to help deliver it. Our relationship spans more than 20 years, and this is one of many projects we’ll be delivering in this AMP8 cycle. Collaboration will be key to making it a success, with all parties co-located in our new welfare village, working together to ensure safe, efficient, and successful delivery.” The project forms part of Severn Trent’s wider capital investment plan for AMP8 and highlights Kier’s continued role in helping the water company enhance its critical infrastructure across the Midlands. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

Now is a time of change for UK’s ‘broken’ water sector Publication of the final report of the independent review into the water sector’s regulatory system in England and Wales has been welcomed by ACE Group.  The Independent Water Commission, chaired by Sir Jon Cunliffe, has now concluded its investigation into the provision of water and the quality of our natural water environment.  The review is a direct response to a catalogue of pollution cases, financial difficulties, mismanagement and infrastructure failures within the sector, which combined have shaken the public’s trust.  With firm recommendations on driving resilience, enabling innovation, supporting supply chain capacity, speeding up delivery and the capability of water companies to roll out large infrastructure projects, ACE Group is calling on Government to embed these into law at the earliest opportunity.  Director of Policy at ACE Group, Marie-Claude Hemming, said: “ACE Group has long argued that the UK’s water sector is fundamentally broken, still driven by cycles of boom and bust alongside challenging business models, a lack strategy and pipeline visibility.   “The publication of the Cunliffe review highlights that it really is now time for change. Trust has been broken and we all have a part to play in its restoration.  “This cannot be done in isolation. While we urge the government to implement the recommendations of this independent review as soon as possible, we must all be cognisant of big decisions ahead.  “Primarily, it is no longer possible to continue with the current approach, whereby the industry is deprived of necessary investment – does not drive economic growth and the longer-term environmental outcomes future generations deserve.   “We need honest conversations about cost and the finance models needed to deliver the world class water infrastructure society expects.  “ACE Group urges Government not to shy away from difficult decisions and seize the opportunity to deliver this once in a generation reform to our water sector.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

Two proposed reservoir schemes by Anglian Water in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire have officially been designated as nationally significant infrastructure projects, allowing them to bypass the local authority planning system and seek direct approval from the Planning Inspectorate. The move means both schemes will now be subject to a Development Consent Order (DCO) process, with final approval resting with the relevant Secretary of State, rather than local planning committees. Despite headlines from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs suggesting that the government is “stepping in to build the first major reservoirs in 30 years”, it’s important to note that the schemes will remain under the control of Anglian Water and its delivery partners. In fact, the Havant Thicket Reservoir, currently under construction by Portsmouth Water in Hampshire, is already underway—making the department’s claim somewhat misleading. Anglian Water’s Lincolnshire Reservoir is proposed for land south of Sleaford, with a target operational date of 2040. It is designed to deliver up to 166 million litres of water daily, supplying around 500,000 homes. Meanwhile, the Fens Reservoir, a joint venture between Anglian Water and Cambridge Water, is planned for a site between Chatteris and March, aiming to come online by 2036. It will deliver up to 87 million litres of water per day to support around 250,000 homes. These developments are especially critical given the location—eastern England is the driest region of the UK and under growing pressure from climate change, population growth, and agricultural demand. Both projects are now moving into the consultation phase, where feedback will be gathered from local communities, stakeholders, and environmental groups to help shape final proposals. Sian Thomas, Anglian Water’s Director of Strategic Asset Management, welcomed the announcement, saying: “This is a great first step in recognising the scale and importance of these major infrastructure builds. But it will require even further innovation and change in regulation to deliver major infrastructure on the scale needed for the UK—for example, developing appropriate infrastructure financing, funding, and procurement models, further reviewing planning reform, and achieving greater regulatory alignment.” The reservoirs form part of Anglian Water’s long-term strategy to futureproof water supply across the region, improve resilience against drought, and support wider environmental goals. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals