Design-build contractor Black & Veatch is using modular shoring equipment together with a new quick-hitch device, and a range of site safety equipment from Groundforce companies (Groundforce Shorco and Piletec), on a major multi-million overhaul of a water treatment works upgrade for Yorkshire Water.

The £15 million project to upgrade the Old Whittington waste water treatment works near Chesterfield in Derbyshire, which was originally built in 1930, involves the construction of a below-ground combined storm-water overflow with three 8 m long screw pumps.

The excavation which measures 25 m in length by 15 m wide is lined with approximately 180 Groundforce HY6 lapped steel sheet piles. Lateral support is provided by Groundforce Shorco’s Megabrace modular hydraulic struts and an HSK80 hydraulic prop in a single-frame propped cantilever configuration.


A coupling method using the new VibroSafe quick-hitch attachment from Piletec was used to fix the Miller MS4 vibrating hammer to the site excavator, a 23 tonne Komatsu back-actor.

VibroSafe, which was launched earlier this year, was developed by Piletec in association with leading quick hitch manufacturer Miller UK Ltd to provide a safe method of attaching a vibrating hammer to an excavator using a double-pin quick-hitch coupling.

Currently the only fully tested and certificated attachment for this application, VibroSafe not only ensures safe operation but also allows the host machine to switch from bucket to hammer in minutes.

Also used on the project was equipment from the Groundforce SiteSafe range, which has been designed to work with the company’s excavation support systems. This included EdgeSafe, a lightweight mesh barrier and clamping system for sheeted excavations and trench boxes, which provided continuous edge protection around the excavation, and Premier LadderSafe which comprises of a platform for safe side entry to a pole ladder as a means of access.

Groundforce supplied the equipment in late February and is expected to remain onsite for 12 weeks.

Once completed, the site will become one of Yorkshire Water’s most environmentally friendly sewage works, with an average of 40% of the plant’s daily energy needs coming from renewable sources attached to the treatment process, such as the burning of methane gas to generate electricity.

For further information visit: www.groundforce.uk.com