£16m storm water pumping station opens

A £16m storm water pumping station to improve flood defences has been completed in Hull in a move which will help protect around 15,000 homes.

Yorkshire Water’s new pumping station at Bransholme was officially opened by Hull North MP Diana Johnson marking the end of two and a half years’ construction on-site by the utility company’s contract partners Black and Veatch.

The station features six giant Archimedes storm water screw pumps, which during heavy rainfall will help reduce the risk of flooding by moving  surface water from the sewers into the site’s storage lagoon. The massive pumps, each equivalent to the length of a blue whale, are amongst the biggest in Europe and serve the purpose of protecting the local sewer network from overflowing during extreme storm conditions.

The new and improved pumping station has around four times greater capacity
and can transfer the equivalent of an Olympic swimming pool’s worth of
storm water into the lagoon in less than two minutes. Once stored in the
lagoon, water is then slowly released into the River Hull.

Yorkshire Water’s director of asset management Nevil Muncaster said: “Not
only is the completion of the new pumping station at Bransholme a big step
forward in terms of reducing the flood risk for people in Bransholme and
Kingswood, but it is also a significant achievement in terms of innovative
design. The living roof and brick finish were developed in consultation
with local people to make the design as sympathetic as possible to the
local surroundings and the solar panels will help to reduce the overall
impact on the environment.

“The city of Hull was developed around the opportunities provided by the
water environment, the challenge now is to make Hull even more flood
resilient whilst rediscovering the positive role that water can play in
shaping a successful and sustainable city. Working closely with Hull City
Council, the Environment Agency, East Riding of Yorkshire Council and other
key stakeholders we are committed to playing our part in helping to deliver
that vision.”