Projects Civil Engineering Commercial & Industrial

Muntons Plc

Our project for Muntons Plc in Stowmarket consisted of a new boosted water supply system and pipework to enable the removal of the gravity-fed water supply system currently located on a brick-built tower.

The tower construction was a steel frame incorporated within a 9” brickwork skin. The steel has corroded over the years, resulting in the brickwork becoming damaged and in a very poor and dangerous condition.

The high-level water tank was removed, then the tower was demolished, brick-by-brick to 1.5m off the flat roof level.

Once the demolition was complete, a new flat roof was constructed off the remaining brickwork.

The tower housed a former lift shaft, and the vast, extremely heavy metal cogs which were part of the lift mechanism were cut away for ease of removal.

Access to the very restricted area is via scaffolding designed specifically for this purpose, allowing work to be carried out without penetrating or disturbing the adjacent Chrysotile roof sheets.

Sector: Civil Engineering, Commercial and Industrial
Client: Muntons Plc
Architect: KLH Architects
Quantity Surveyor: Castons Artelia
Commenced:
Completed: Due to complete October 2025
Procurement Method: Negotiated
Contract Value: £670,000

Challenges and Constraints

Very tight access with limited working space.
To facilitate demolition, the gravity-fed water system had to be replaces with a boosted water supply.
The new Booster sets were located in an existing pump room, situated 60m from the main building.
The route for the new underground pipework crossed multiple services at varying levels, meaning the whole excavation would require hand digging. A Ground Penetrating Radar survey, although not 100% accurate, indicated the location of most of the services.
The ground conditions were poor, with potential pockets of contamination -as such, the whole dig needed to be treated as contaminated.
The location of the new pipe run was within the main entrance to the factory which could not easily be closed.
The pipework needed to be 180mm Protecta-Line.
The route of the new pipework needed to curve around an existing building.
To mitigate any issues, we called in South East Directional Drilling Services (SEDDS), who rose to the challenge. Two pits were excavated, one at either end of the run to just over 1m in depth, which allowed us to avoid any possible contaminants.
The drill head entered the pit and was drilled to a depth of 2400mm to avoid the deepest service. An operative tracked the drill head using a scanner and guided the driver to ensure the drill was on the correct trajectory. The drill head entered the exit pit in exactly the correct location as predicted.
The drill head was changed to a ‘Reamer’, and the pipe was attached to it. 30 minutes later, the pipe had been drawn through the bored-out hole and was in position, ready for connection to the new supply and chlorinating.
All in all, a very positive experience which saved both Gipping and our client time, money, and inconvenience, vastly reducing the manual labour requirement and leaving any potentially contaminated subsoils safely beneath the reinforced concrete roadway.

Environmental

As responsible contractors who are ISO14001 accredited, we completed environmental risk assessments, minimised waste and any waste was disposed of using licensed companies. Waste was sorted at the collection depot. Typically, 90% of waste is recycled.

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