Helping safeguard the UK’s water supplies
Inertia Consulting is a civil engineering supplier to the UK water industry, undertaking services on Severn Trent, Anglian Water and Southern Water assets.
Our engineers have wide experience in carrying out complex and large-scale inspection, survey and non-destructive testing projects to bridges, tunnels, culverts, aqueducts, service reservoirs, water towers, water supply works, water treatment works and stormwater attenuation structures.
We specialise in conducting high pressure pipeline testing and residual life assessments. In addition, we offer an asset management service where we inspect and assess the condition of all the client’s structures before recommending a prioritised schedule of maintenance and repairs.
We provide high quality design services (including temporary works) to the water sector, both for new builds and for the strengthening, repair and refurbishment of existing structures.
❯Experts in specialist and confined space access
As you’d expect, processes such as undertaking capacity assessments and condition surveys on underground reservoirs frequently involve working in hard to reach locations. The Inertia Consulting team has the training and equipment to manage all aspects of specialist access in-house including dewatering, desilting and the management of river flows, underground communications and confined spaces.
We have our own fleet of power boats and have worked on many projects that have required us to build pontoons, enable roped or diving access, or work from Mobile Elevating Work Platforms (MEWPs). Our accreditations include Confined Space Entry and Control, IPAF Powered Access Licences, EUSR National Water Hygiene and PASMA membership.
Our expertise in specialist access means we’re often called on to provide inspection support to third party consultancies to enable their investigations to be carried out safely and compliantly. Naturally, Quality, Health & Safety and Environmental Management are paramount, and we hold ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certifications to prove our credentials in this area.
A multi-award winning £2m project for Severn Trent
One of Inertia Consulting’s biggest achievements is the refurbishment of the Wilford Suspension Bridge in Nottingham. Completed in 2010, the works involved the use of advanced X-ray and magnetic techniques to enable the suspension cables within the 100 year old bridge to be retained – saving Severn Trent around £500,000. We also ensured that the water and gas mains could remain in service for the duration of the project.
The sympathetic approach we took to the refurbishment of the bridge earned us several prestigious accolades, including:
- Commendation in the ICE Historical Bridges and Infrastructure Awards 2010
- High Commendation in the ICE East Midlands Merit Awards 2010
- Nottingham Civic Society Award 2010
You can read more about this project here.
Other projects we’ve worked on include:
- Temporary access bridge for the Lea Tunnel Project, forming part of the Thames Tideway Sewer
- Rapid gravity filter assessment and survey at a Southern Water supply works in Southampton
- Surveying and designing modifications for water towers owned by Anglian Water
- Capacity assessment, inspection and strengthening/repair design works on underwater reservoirs at Biggleswade and Ipswich, owned by Anglian Water
- Confined spaces inspection of the 8km long raw water Ashop and Noe diversion tunnels for Severn Trent
- Testing, inspecting and surveying a Victorian culvert in Blackburn to ascertain how existing abutments could be re-used as part of a new, multi-use development
- Carrying out a condition, dimensional and latent defects survey of a 9 megalitre capacity stormwater attenuation tank in Manchester
- Bridge management services to 74 pipe structures forming the Derwent Valley Aqueduct, for Severn Trent
For more in-depth project case studies, please visit the Projects section of our website.