Trust Utility Management completed the first phase of Stoke City Council’s District heating installation project, providing an energy-efficient way of warming homes and businesses.
The District Heat Network (DHN) involves hot water being circulated around a closed loop of insulated underground pipes. Buildings are then connected to the DHN via heat exchangers, meaning they do not need their own bulky boilers.
District heating has been popular in continental Europe for decades, with many cities and towns having DHNs linking thousands of properties. While the UK has thousands of individual DHNs, these are mostly small scale schemes compared to those in the rest of Europe.
Working closely with the City Council and Morrisons Utility Management, Trust undertook this phase of the scheme in an extremely challenging environment. The route was across one of the busiest junctions in the city and directly outside Stoke College. Pedestrian and traffic management was extremely important and managed night and day.
The work was undertaken 7 days a week and a significant amount of work was required at night, battling against the elements including heavy snowfall.
Excavating up to 4m deep and 3m wide, Trust fully managed their own temporary works via a safe system of work, excavating in footways and carriageways heavily populated with various pipes, cables and drains. This called for extreme caution and the highest standards of control.
After installing the DH Pipes, Trust Utility Management installed communication ducts and cathodic marker tape. We then completed reinstatement to the highest standard, using traditional methods as well as void fill concrete to ensure the quality of the road construction. Final reinstatement was then undertaken in line with the HAUC specification.
Trust undertook all of these activity’s offering a one stop solution to the various challenges of the project.
