OnSite at Whaley Bridge Dam

The Whaley bridge dam is located in Derbyshire next to the Whaley bridge town. The dam is about 80 feet high and contains over 1288 000 cubic metres of water. There were reports last week, concerning the status of the concrete wall as pictures showed major damage after heavy rainfall in the area. The environment agency issued a severe flood warning followed by evacuation of hundreds of people living in areas at risk of flooding. According to the government flood warning website, a severe flood warning presents a significant danger to life, requires immediate readiness to evacuate and cooperation with emergency services.

At approximately 0900 hours on Friday morning, we received an emergency call asking for our attendance to support the engineering design team and dispatch specialist teams with associated plant immediately. When our lead engineer arrived into site it became obvious that this was going to be a very challenging task and one that would need a focused team effort at all levels.

Phones were ringing, emails flying as people were under pressure as supply chains needed securing whilst accepting that we still needed to agree a final design with the Panel Engineer. We made a quick decision in regards to the material selection so as to enable deliveries as the dam was at a critical point in terms of failure and we just needed to proceed at pace and rely on our experience in regards to material design and engineering skills.

Teams of labour were secured throughout our national operations with the first team arriving into site in the afternoon, the specialist grouting works then proceeded on a double shift pattern until the risk of dam failing had been adequately reduced.

It is a great testament to the group when we demonstrate our combined strength and capability on such a critical project and we are very proud to have been able to assist the local community, they kept us fed and watered throughout the operation so many thanks to them.

Dave Taylor

Managing Director

SSI Services (UK) Ltd 

Green Lane, Walsall,

WS2 7PD 

01922-638282 

07870 700008