WTW Sludge Building

The final structure at Williamsgate Water Treatment Works near Cockermouth is starting to take shape with the erection of the steel structure of the sludge building. Initial analysis was done using STAAD Pro software which was followed by detailed design on SCIA Engineer.

SOLID were involved in the design of the building from foundations, to concrete structures and the steel frame. 

As part of the £300M West Cumbria Water Supplies Project, Williamsgate Water Treatment Works near Cockermouth will treat 80million litres of raw water from Thirlmere Reservoir every day.

One of the processes on site is to treat the sludge, a by-product of the water treatment process, and reduce it by compressing it into sludge cake. This minimises its bulk thereby reducing transportation and storage costs.

With a reduction in bulk of approximately 75%, there is a strong sustainability argument with a much reduced carbon footprint of the operation running only 1 truck instead of 4 per pre-compressed volume of sludge. 

The sludge cake will be sold on to local farmers to plough into their fields. An alternative use of the sludge cake is to generate bio-gas which is a clean, sustainable source of energy. This application of sludge cake is used at new Advanced Energy Recovery plant at Crossness Sewage Treatment plant. HAC (now part of SOLID) completed this project with Ward and Burke  in 2018.