HYDROMETRIC STATION ASSET MAINTENANCE
Following the successful completion of routine maintenance works at over forty-five hydrometric stations, Stonbury has been awarded several contracts to manage and carry out routine quarterly maintenance at over one hundred gauging sites across Wales.
The stations are an essential part of a flood defence Strategy that allows the client to constantly monitor the height and flow of a watercourse and anticipate when and where a flood event is likely to occur. This, in turn, enables Hydrometry and Telemetry teams to implement pre-emptive measures, from large scale, long term engineering solutions including embankments, pumping stations and reservoirs, to small scale measures such as trash screen and channel clearance.
Initially, works included clearing and cleaning silted access steps, gutters and encroaching vegetation that blocked access ways. The team documented additional defects identified at each location and passed the information back to the client.
As the maintenance and repair works have progressed, the site teams have found each station requires a varying degree of maintenance, including but not limited to; access clearance, repairs to gauge boards, buildings and fences, watercourse revetments, masonry repairs, fish and eel pass clearance and the removal of in-channel vegetation.
In addition, some sites have required weed control solutions to be carried out to reduce the dominance of identified invasive plant’s species, including Japanese Knotweed. Where required, biosecurity protocols are followed to ensure cross-contamination does not occur.
Due to the location of much of the works, high water levels and fast flows can impede access and will, in some cases, require a return to site to complete the scope when it is safe to do so. However, the teams onsite all receive practical Water Safety Training to ensure they have the skills to act appropriately in an emergency.