Mott MacDonald has been appointed by Abu Dhabi Sewerage Services Company (ADSSC) to provide contract administration and site overview services for the development of one of the world’s largest underground pumping stations. Located in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the pumping station will be over 100m deep and approximately 40m in diameter and will have an ultimate peak pumping capacity of approximately 3.3 million cubic metres per day.
ADSSC is the service provider for sewerage services and currently owns and operates the sewerage network and treatment plants throughout the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. To address projected growth within the Emirate, ADSSC has developed a comprehensive plan to increase system capacity. The cornerstone of this plan is the Strategic Tunnel Enhancement Programme (STEP).
The focus of STEP is a deep 41km long tunnel sewer and several systems of link sewers which will collect and transport wastewater to a main pumping station for onward treatment at the Al Wathba Independent Sewage Treatment Plants (ISPTs). The link sewers will intercept the flows from existing gravity sewers upstream of the existing pumping stations, both on Abu Dhabi Island and the mainland. These flows will be channelled by gravity into the deep tunnel. At the downstream end of the deep tunnel, in the AI Wathba area, an underground pumping station will be built to lift the sewage to the surface, and into newly constructed ISTPs.
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The pumping station will be housed in a large deep structure at one end of the tunnel. The facility will also accommodate electrical and power generation facilities, operations and maintenance facilities, standby power fuel storage and pumping and a flow distribution facility.
Mott MacDonald will undertake the role of engineer for the contract administration and construction oversight. This will involve project, design, cost, contract and health, safety and environment management.
Peter Hall, Mott MacDonald’s project director said: “The UAE is the third largest consumer of water in the world after Canada and the USA. There is a daily water consumption rate of nearly 550 litres per person in a region that receives less than 1cm of rain per year. Therefore, management and reuse of wastewater is a critical component to Abu Dhabi’s long-term sustainability.”
The project is due for completion towards the middle of 2015.
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