Barking Town Centre District Heating Network

District Heating projects can involve disruption, so it’s important to meet with all stakeholders at the earliest opportunity to begin plans to minimise this.  This involved arranging meeting with organisations such as Barking Council, Wates, McLaren Group, Everyone Active (Leisure Centre) & developers Eco World.

Consultation often yields information which allows us to work with the community to deliver the project in a way which best suits all constituents.  A prime example of this came when we were informed that the local market was due to open after COVID restrictions and we were asked if we could accelerate the delivery programme so they could reopen as scheduled, giving our team just 4 weeks to complete this section of the project.

This involved our team excavating 133m of trench, welding and jointing 266m of 300/500mm Logstor Series 2 steel mains, backfilling the trench and delivering reinstatement works.  To do this we brought in additional delivery teams to allow us to work 7 days per week and, on occasions, work from 7:30am to 10pm.

The result was that we were able to meet the accelerated deadline and allow the market to open on time.

We have a core belief that our projects are opportunities to bring social value to an area and worked with the local council to understand how we could bring the widest possible benefits to the community.  This ranged from smaller initiatives, such as encouraging our delivery team to spend money locally through to employment opportunities and charity contributions.

One of the most rewarding opportunities on the Barking Heat Network project came when we got the opportunity to engage with two local primary schools.  This saw our Managing Director of Heat Networks visit both St Joseph’s RC Primary School and Gascoigne Primary School to take part in climate education session, teaching the children about the challenges facing our planet and how the Barking Heat Network will lower carbon emissions throughout the area.

The day also saw a tree planting event and poster design competition, with some of the winners being used on the hoarding boards across the scheme.  Additionally Vital Energi donated £1,000 to each of the schools.

We were able to engage with the local college to employ a student on a 6-month work placement which gave her real-life working experience across all aspects of the project.  As part of this, they were able to undertake CSCS training, allowing her to experience the site-wide engineering aspect of the project.  On completion, the candidate commented on how useful the 6-month placement had been and that it had solidified her goal of becoming an engineer.

We try and work with local businesses to minimise disruption and this can range from small gestures to significant contributions.

As part of the project, we made a weekly purchase of fruit from the local market for our delivery team and encouraged them to spend locally by advertising local stores and eateries within the site welfare spaces and offices.

It became clear that any significant traffic restrictions which occurred in Barking town centre would potentially impact the A406 north circular road and cause massive disruption.  We liaised closely with the highways team throughout the project to create traffic management plan which would ensure this did not happen.

Additionally, we carried out numerous trial holes across the scheme to assess the route and identify any potential issues at the earliest moment.  This meant our traffic management plan could not be impacted by unexpected issues, such as a clash with existing services.

If we’re working in a location with a rich historical heritage, where necessary, we will look to ensure works are done in a sensitive way and any finds can be fully investigated.  As part of this project we installed district heating in close proximity to the historically important, 7^th century Barking Abbey. Fortunately, whilst designing the route, we were able to move this into areas of already disturbed ground from previous utility installations (mainly highways), so reduced any potential impact from the project on any potential existing archaeological concerns.

Because the Abbey is historically important, we had to ensure that we did not affect the integrity of the old stone wall which ran adjacent to the highway where we installed our pipe work.  To guarantee the safety of the wall we set up movement monitor to check for movement in existing cracks and carried out regular inspections to ensure no new cracks were appearing. No movement in the wall were recorded.

As excavations can traditionally involve high-vibration machinery to break through the tarmac, we needed a new approach and used a deep saw to cut through and then lift the tarmac/concrete out of the trench.

We installed 4km of district heating pipework throughout the town centre, with much of the installation taking place on the highways.  The pipework was Logstor series 2 with a fusion welded jointing system which ensures longevity due to its resilient nature.  The network was predominantly 300mm pipework, with smaller branches off the mains to connect individual buildings.

District heating pipework comes in lengths of 12m which need to be lifted into the trenches and as this project was delivered in a densely populated area of London, finding a suitable storage area can be problematic.  An additional requirement was that the project delivery team would need a welfare area for the duration of the project.

To solve this is arranged with the local shopping centre who allowed us to place our welfare cabins of the roof of their multi-storey car park and worked with a local landowner to arrange a storage area 5 miles from the project.

The scale of the project presented the team with a significant challenge.  Once installed, district heating pipework needs to be cleaned and this is traditionally done by running chemically treated water through it.  On a 4km heat network this is a significant undertaking.

We ensured that our operatives delivered the project in a way which would make the flushing process as straightforward as possible.  This included sealing the pipework with drainage bungs at the end of each day to protect them from debris entering the system. We also installed full bore loop in the system to accommodate the velocities of water needed for flushing.

Another significant step was to add a corrosion inhibiter to the flush, to improve longevity and avoid future problems with corrosion in the pipework.