Case Study

Sykes Pumps responds to burst water main in Kent

When a burst water main in Kent threatened to impede road users at a busy roundabout junction, a major water contractor responded quickly to address the issue.

The problem intensified with every passing minute and led to significant volumes of water creating puddles and subsequent disruption caused by the need for traffic to be diverted away from the area in question.

With immediate action required, the contractor chose to use one of our Rapid Response pumps which was on standby at their local yard. Our client retains the pump on a long-term hire, with its ability to be legally towed by any medium-sized vehicle enabling customer sites to be reached within minutes of a callout.

This particular pump has been specifically designed for emergency scenarios and offers huge pumping capacities of up to 130,000 litres for every hour of use. The unit’s size and portability negate the need for transportation via lorry while a built-in 35-litre fuel tank allows continuous operation for up to 24 hours.

Our pump was positioned in the centre of the affected roundabout and was immediately operational, removing tens of thousands of litres of water from the road. The presence of our unit allowed engineers to conduct repairs on damaged pipework before the flow of water was completed stemmed.

The contractor – a frequent hirer of our Rapid Response pump – was very satisfied with the impact our unit made and the flexibility it provides in emergency situations such as this. Like most utility companies, our customer is expected to operate to very tight KPIs that obligate responding to an issue within a strict timeframe.

The pump was only required on site for approximately 48 hours on this occasion, but its swift deployment allowed the problem to be dealt with more efficiently than would have been possible with a standard site-chassis unit.

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