Managing projects the Mono way

Having the right design expertise can help improve performance and costings for customers. Ian Campbell looks at some of the projects tackled by his M&E team, and the issues involved.


The competitive advantage of a company that designs and manufactures a comprehensive range of pumps, grinders, screens and packaged pumping systems and handles project management and installation is obvious.

The client benefits from joined-up thinking and has only one point of contact to deal with – while the project management team brings all of its collected experience assuming responsibility right up to commissioning and hand-over.

The team is fully conversant with health and safety issues and the necessary local authority procedures, as well as possessing all the relevant design expertise (including 3D modelling) and the ability to produce competitive proposals and costings.

This can sometimes result in a radically different solution to the one originally envisaged by the client, but one that can improve performance and save money.

A recent turnkey that we project managed, including the installation of a Discreen, is enabling United Utilities to fulfil its obligations under Section 14 of the Freshwater Fisheries Act, while containing the cost of compliance within reasonable levels.

Hareden Intake, near Dunsop Bridge in the Trough of Bowland previously had a problem with migratory fish from the river entering the intake – a challenge that the equipment from Mono has solved.

Implementation of conventional filters at the site, which serves the Preston area with 6.6 million gallons of water a day, was judged impractical because they would have required regular maintenance to clear leaves and debris.

Conventional screening technology would have been prohibitively expensive and difficult to install at this particular site.

Consulting engineers were initially called in to evaluahow best to comply with

legislation and meet the specific on-site requirements and decided that the Discreen was the best solution.

As Mono has a dedicated projects team, United Utilities asked Mono to not only manufacture and supply the Discreen, but also manage this turnkey project.

The Mono Discreen has a 2.2kW motor and is economical in its 24/7 all-year-round operation. The screen is constructed using a number of shafts each fitted with discs that overlap and intermesh with corresponding shafts.

The shaft rotation forms a gentle conveying action across the face of the screen to the discharge point, whilst allowing water to flow through the disc stacks. Individual comb bars are fitted to the first and last shaft to eject screening solids that remain in the main flow.

This removes the need to collect and manually dispose of extracted debris, significantly reducing labour and disposal costs, whilst the gentle rotating action of the discs do not harm aquatic wildlife.

The responsibilities of the Mono projects team’s responsibilities included M&E design and installation, construction of ramps to permit equipment delivery, manoeuvring of heavy equipment to the remote rural location, as well as the digging of trenches for cable ducts leading to the control room.

After lowering the Discreen into its support frame, which allows easy removal for any routine maintenance, the remote control panel was mounted adjacent to the Discreen.

This control panel intermittently stops and reverses the Discreen to ensure the discs are free of debris. Final commissioning and training of the site operatives completed this turnkey project.

Noise emission

Mono is able to cater for almost any pumping, grinding or screening requirement giving the client a bespoke system or package that exactly fulfils their needs. One such complete solution is operating in Wales where Mono designed and installed a new packaged pumping system at Broadmoor, for Welsh Water.

The park needed a new pumping station to handle sewage from the 50 caravans on site and due to its situation in a public area, low noise emission as well as operating performance was a key factor.

The tailored solution implemented by Mono uses two CE072 short Flexishaft

E Range pumps and two horizontally mounted SB Munchers installed in a duty/standby arrangement in a special acoustic GRP kiosk to keep noise levels to a minimum. In order to meet local planning consent and blend in with the surrounding area, the pumping station is constructed using panels complete with brickwork fascia representing local stonework and meeting with building regulation requirements.

The projects team designed, supplied and installed the packaged pumping station, taking all the responsibility away from the site owner and giving the customer just one company to liaise with.

Minimum disruption

As well as installing new units, the upgrading of existing pumping systems in rural locations is an area in which Mono is widely experienced, having completed a large number of installations of this type in recent years as part of the Sewers for Adoption scheme.

Mono recently worked with Malden District Council in Essex on the replacement of an old pump house with a Mono Packaged Pumping Station; which brought the new system up to a standard suitable for future adoption by Anglian Water.

Demolition of the existing structure, as well as installation and commissioning, were carried out by Mono’s project management team to create minimum disruption in the lives of local residents.

Housed in a new GRP kiosk in a domestic front garden, the pumping station consists of two Mono progressing cavity pumps and two macerators, operating as duty/standby, together with all the associated pipe work and controls needed to serve the seven houses in the hamlet of Perryfields.

The station handles the raw domestic sewage at a capacity of 4 cubic meters per hour and a pressure of 3 bar.

The positive displacement action of the progressing cavity pump lifts the wastewater out of the collection sump into the cutting chamber of the macerator.

The wastewater and any textile or fibrous matter is macerated and then pumped away to the main gravity sewer.

The sump is fitted with level controllers so that when the sewage reaches a

certain point it is automatically emptied by the pump, and once emptied the system cuts out, thus ensuring low energy consumption and reliable, cost effective operation.

Mono Pumps’ strengths lie not only in the commercial and municipal water sectors but also in industrial applications.

Block manufacturer for the building industry, Tarmac Topblock needed to transfer hot alkaline water from its washdown sump to the local treatment works in Arundel.

Removing equipment

In partnership with Paterson Candy Refurbishments, Mono supplied two of its vertical ‘P Range’ progressing cavity pumps to transfer the water from the sump to the treatment works for neutralisation and recycling, as part of Tarmac’s policy of achieving best environmental practice.

Mono provided an extensive package that included the custom design of the pumps, all control panel and ultrasonic level controls, stainless steel pipework, installation of a swing jib, support platform and guard railing for the pumps and walkways over the sump, commissioning and training of on-site personnel.

As the pumps are located in a difficult area, Mono installed a 250kg swing jib

to replace a 20 tonne truck-mounted mobile crane, allowing equipment to be removed more easily to a safe location when maintenance is required.

To ensure that the customers’ production was not interrupted, only limited downtime was available for the installation of the equipment, therefore Mono installed the equipment over a weekend to ensure that the production line could continue as normal on the Monday morning.

All of this goes to demonstrate that with many years experience between members of the Mono M&E team, the customer really could not be in more capable hands for the management of a pumping, grinding and screening project.

Ian Campbell is head of Mono Pumps’ project management and installations.

T: 0161 339 9000.

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