Water quality project in Sweden earned a CEEQUAL rating of Excellent
Overview
The flens framtida vattenförsörjning project secured the future water demand and quality in Flen, Sweden. For its sustainable practices, the project got a CEEQUAL (now known as BREEAM Infrastructure) rating of 75.5%.
About
Founded in Canada, WSP is environmental consulting firm that operates globally.
Background
WSP used CEEQUAL on the project as a way of evaluating and calibrating how sustainability can be further integrated in its working processes. The identification of possible enhancements on how WSP can deliver more sustainable projects was, therefore, an important aim. A further aim was to increase awareness among the designers on how they are working with sustainability issues and their contribution to a project’s sustainability performance.
Challenges
Many of the sustainability aspects were handled by adjusting the extensive application for permission. The location of the pipeline was adjusted several times in order to avoid intrusion in areas of value and to minimise disruption.
Areas with high cultural, historical, ecological or biological values were avoided, as well as areas with previous industrial/military activities that might contaminate the land. Existing pipelines and future development plans were taken into consideration to minimise the use of resources, ease maintenance and increase flexibility.
Solutions
WSP designed 20km of pipeline to transfer water from a nearby municipality to solve the water quality issues that currently affect the area. As the ground was already being prepared, the opportunity was taken to install a wastewater pipeline at the same time and so this was also included in the design. The design phase of the project was finalised in December 2015, resulting in a tender specification for the client to procure a contractor.
Both the construction method and pipeline location were part of the design, taking account of direct cost for construction and long-term cost during operation. The construction method, and the timing and duration of construction, were key aspects affecting the extent of disruption.
Gentle construction techniques and considerate times for construction were therefore chosen. Opinions from consultation with landowners and other parties of interest were highly valued in terms of where to locate the pipeline and when to perform construction.
The project selected materials based on information about their carbon footprint, durability and flexibility during construction and maintenance. A calculation of the embodied water in the building materials specified was also performed.
Benefits
Commenting on the impact of the CEEQUAL assessment, a spokesperson for the project share, “All sections of CEEQUAL were more or less integrated in the project during decision-making, but the work with the chapter ‘Physical Resources – Use and Management’ is the section where the biggest improvements were made.”
They continued, “By using CEEQUAL on the Flens framtida vattenförsörjning project, WSP has developed a systematic approach to integrate sustainability within civil engineering projects. Additionally, several sustainability tools, custom-made for the designers at WSP Sweden and the projects WSP are involved in, were developed during this process.”
