WaStop protects 3 Mills Studio in Stratford, London

VolkerStevin| Stratford, East London| Flood protection

The problem

3 Mills Studios is a centre for film, television and theatre production. The site of a former distillery in 3 Mills became a dedicated centre for television and film production work with the establishment in the 1980s of Bow Studios, 3 Mills Island Studios, and Edwin Shirley Productions. In the mid-1990s the three studios merged to become 3 Mills Studios.

Aquatic Control Engineering Ltd (ACE), our distributor in the UK, were contacted at the beginning of the year, as the client have an outfall onto the tidal river Thames – which had no return valve fitted. The 1200 mm pipe was therefore unprotected and subject to tidal ingress on every rising tide, offering no flood protection.

ACE were initially asked to consider the use of a flap valve. However, the existing headwall was set back from the river walls, so any flap valve installation would have required challenging civils work on the river bed which sits significantly below the wingwall coping. On top of this access to the site was extremely difficult and risky, and due to the tides working windows were very short.

Wastop Backventil

Solution

WaStop® Inline Check valve

Following an initial site meeting and an extensive site survey by ACE – it was decided that a WaStop inline check valve would be a much better solution. The WaStop´s ingenious design meant it could easily fit inside the existing infrastructure. This removed the need for costly civils, dramatically reducing the costs of the project. Another key driver for the WaStop was that it requires virtually zero maintenance.

Due to the difficulty in accessing the site, a large crane was required to lower the 1200 mm WaStop down to the river bed. Also lowered down was a small excavator to aid in the installation and push the WaStop into its final position.

The key to the success of this project was good co-ordination between VolkerStevin the contractor working for the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) at the 3 Mills Studio, the ACE Operations Team with years of experience, a great product design from Wapro’s engineers and a solid survey.

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