Hydro-Brake® Optimum flow controls help the UK Highways Agency to cut stormwater storage requirements by up to 30% and deliver up to 50% savings in project costs.

Situation

The UK Highways Agency’s £375 million project to expand 28 km (17 mi) of Nottinghamshire road from single to dual carriageway needed to achieve pre-development surface water runoff in a sensitive location.

Problem

Doubling the surface area of the Newark to Widmerpool trunk road would create unacceptably high surface water runoff.

Solution

Principal contractor Balfour Beatty and consultant engineers URS Scott Wilson designed a series of 12 balancing ponds, with the outfall from each controlled by Hydro-Brake® Optimum flow controls.

Outcome

The Hydro-Brake® Optimum flow controls ensure that the outflow from each pond is carefully controlled and limited to between 27.5 and 66 L/s (435 and 1,046 gpm).

"[The ponds] discharge into many different watercourses along the route, and the Hydro-Brake® is widely recognised as the best flow control device for these projects." - Steve Sloan, Site Engineer, Balfour Beatty