A team of specialist divers helped to kick-start Southern Water’s £3 million upgrade of Ham Hill wastewater treatment works in Snodland, Kent.
The diving team was drafted in from engineering firm Burgess Marine to work on a valve located at the bottom of a tank, which stores partially treated wastewater.
The site remained fully functioning throughout the first stage of work, meaning wastewater services were unaffected for 56,000 customers.
Jonathon Quirk, project manager, Southern Water said the week-long operation to dive in and carry out the work involved detailed planning.
He said: “Although we’ve used divers before at other Southern Water sites, it’s not a commonly-used practice. We couldn’t access the valve by draining the tank or diverting the flow, as that would have affected the running of the site, so the only option was to get someone in and work on it live.
“It was a huge operation and required a great deal of thought and planning. Visibility within the tank is zero, so the divers had to rely on touch, experience and detailed information from Southern Water. I’m pleased to say they successfully completed the task.”