drain TRADER
passed away aged 55 just before hewas due to retire. I had the honour of presenting the LackingtonMemorial lecture at a plastic pipes conference on the first anniversary of his passing.
Now that you are outside the industry looking back in, what do you currently see as the industry’s most urgent challenges?
Climate change, impacts of dryer, hotter summers and warmer, wetter winters are real and beginning to impact our lives andwe will all have experienced storm intensities and localised flooding increasing in the last decade. The water sector has limited opportunities to tackle the global causes of climate change but has a major role in mitigating the risks and helping Society cope with the impacts. So water supply demand balance will be front of mind and creating storm capacity alongside our ageing sewerage systems will have to be done. This has to be done with the needs of the environment being recognised and delivered at the same time. Water is a precious and finite resource andwe have ignored this for too long. Both supply/demand and storm capacity have the potential to create opportunities for trenchless solutions
Where do you hope to see the water sector and its trenchless connection in the next 10 to 20 years?
There is a lot being written about the circular economy at the moment aswe seek to understand the finite nature of resources on our planet and figure out howto sustain a living for a growing population.Waste must be rooted out and eliminated wherever it exists. Open trenching for utility apparatus installations is awasteful activity in many situations. The trenchless sector seems to have settled into a slightly niche position.When Iwas more active in the 1990’s itwas anticipated that societywould become less tolerant of streetworks disruption and that as trenchless solutions should offer faster installation with less road surface damage theywould become the dominant solutions of choice. That did not really happen. However aswe think beyond the‘cheapest’cost mind-set and start factoring in all the true costs of the activity, the use of finite resources, the disposal of waste etc. trenchless techniques must become the first option engineers consider. There also needs to be a focus on true innovation.What dowe have to do to arrest pipes
ageing?What materials dowe need to invent that allowus to line a pipe without any interruption to service and fully restore its strength and capacity and at a fraction of the current costs? Can existing technology and materials adapt? This is wherewe need to look longest and hardest. The other side of this is that increasinglyWater Companies, their contractors, academia and organisations like UKSTT will have towork evermore closely together to get trenchless taught and accepted as part of the civil engineering curriculum, both at further education level and at career development level. The UKSTT’swork towards this with university lectures and more recently with seminars and Masterclasses is helping get theword spread more widely and its efforts are ensuring that more and more engineers are aware of the advantages that can be obtained fromthe correct and effective use of trenchless systems as opposed to more traditional systems.
Is there anything not covered here that you would like to say about or to the industry you have been a part of for so many years?
It has been an honour to haveworked for such an excellent company within an excellent sector. I foundmyself at home here fromthe beginning and have only considered leaving on a couple of occasions. Iamplease I stayed and Iwas lucky to find a company that has always exhibited the values I believe in. Martin, thank you for your time for this
interview.May your retirement be a long, fruitful and happy one.
UKSTT Lifetime Achievement Awards
Both Awards (Chris Rees 2020 and Martin Kane 2021) will be presented at the forthcoming UKSTT AwardsDinner nextMarch during the re-dated No-Dig Live event, the original event having been cancelled due to Covid-19.
WessexWater recognised for its health and safety performance
Wessex Water’s engineering and sustainable delivery (E&SD) department has won an Industry Sector Award for the fourth time in five years at the RoSPA Health and Safety Awards. The RoSPAAwards enable organisations to benchmark safety performance year on year, while also demonstrating an ongoing commitment to improving standards and procedures. This year,WessexWater achieved theCommendedSectorAward for its proactive health and safety management systems, culture and overall performance. In previous years, the water and sewerage company’s E&SD department has alsowon the Industry SectorAward and Sir George EarleTrophy (2016), Industry SectorAward (2017) andHighly CommendedSectorAward (2018).
22 drain TRADER | September 2020 |
www.draintraderltd.com
WessexWater’s continued success at the RoSPAawards places it in the top three construction companies for health and safety in theworld. Stephen Penn,WessexWater’s compliance manager, said:“Achieving these awards while actively competing against some of the largest construction companies internationally is somethingwe are very proud of. “It’s great to be recognised for all the hardwork that goes into keeping our people safe and driving our health and safety culture forward.” “We look forward to further improving health and safety across the business, in addition to hopefully winning more awards.”
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