Our work

We’re currently carrying out repairs to our surface water sewer (SWS), which was found following a sink hole appearing in West Street.

Our team have installed an overland sewer pipe and temporary pumps to protect the environment and keep the SWS in the area flowing, whilst isolating the asset to enable repair work to take place.

Health and safety is our number one priority and it is within this framework that our decisions and assessment have been made.

Our initial review suggested the defected section was isolated and a spot repair could be completed. However, upon excavating the initial area and undertaking further non-intrusive surveys and investigations, the defected section is not isolated and there are further complexities highlighted below:

Further damage to the surface water sewer has been identified, where we are now progressing a repair for approximately 30m of new SWS. It should be noted there is evidence to suggest some of this damage maybe a result of third-party utilities.
The outer extent of the sewer gets within closer proximity to the buildings as you move up West Street.
There are several ‘un-mapped’ connections into our sewer which connect into the far side of the sewer, meaning we need to bring these into the centre of the carriageway for the offline repair.
We identified a leak on a water main from SES Water which has been repaired. We also are remaining in contact with them due to the proximity of our works and potential for further issues on their asset.
The carriageway is heavily congested with utilities, both mains and individual supplies, which requires our team to utilise a combination of vacuum excavation and hand digging practices for safety.

How long will repairs go on for?

We’re currently aiming to be completed by first week of November and carrying out these works in 5-meter sections. However, we are taking a find and fix approach. Therefore, as we progress with our works, if we identify further damage, we may need to review our completion date. The challenge we currently have with confirming the full extent of defects is the volume of broken brickwork within the sewer that has been washed downstream, preventing traditional survey (camera) methods. We will be sure to keep residents and stakeholders aware if we anticipate any changes to these repair dates.

What are the working hours of our team?

Our team onsite will be working 12-hour shifts (8am to 8pm). There may be times when you see our teams are ‘not working’, and this can be for a number of reasons:

Design details and dynamic risks that must be managed not just with the on-site delivery team.
Further surveys needing to be carried out.
Awaiting on specific parts and/or equipment.

Can we work overnight?

We do have a section 61 approved which does give us permission to work 5 nights in a 4 week period. However, we also want to keep as much disruption to a minimum as possible and are aware overnight works can impact local residents. If there is an urgent need to work overnight, we will do but currently, we don’t have plans to work through the night.

Can we consider installing pedestrian crossings to allow residents, businesses and customers to cross West Street?

We have considered this and discussed with the Local Authority, however we have decided not to progress this for the following reasons:

Health and safety risk; installing crossing points would compromise the safety of pedestrians because we would be needing to use these points to transport our plant and machinery.
Logistics; our team only have one way in and out of West Street for plant and machinery. Introducing crossing points would require us to continuously manage pedestrian flows when undertaking works each day which again would compromise health and safety
Creates further delays: in conjunction with the above, a robust marshal system would be required to regularly open and close the crossing points.
This will inevitably delay works due to the stop start requirement.

The above rationale is fully supported by the Local Authority

Loss of business queries

We recognise during this time there will be local disruption, which may have an impact on your business. Therefore, we want to make you aware of our 'Loss of Profits' policy through which local businesses can submit a claim for assessment. Claims will be considered where the loss can be reasonably linked to the impact of our activities on access to the business.

Claims for loss of profit are generally assessed by comparison with the same period in the previous year adjusted for prior trend. The reduction in sales is determined and adjusted for the rate of gross profit and other savings. Claims are assessed net of VAT as this is not payable on a claim settlement.

The claim form we provide indicates the details that we would require to assess the claim. These details may not be exhaustive and if so, we will revert to you for the further details after our initial review. If your business has been trading for less than a year we will still be happy to look at the prior sales from commencement to seek to determine expected income during the period of interruption.

To claim for loss of business relating to Dorking Surrey, please complete our claim form. The form can be emailed to lossofbusiness@thameswater.co.uk. Alternatively, you can fill it in and post it to:

Property Manager Capital Projects 2nd Floor West

Clearwater Court, Vastern Road

Reading

RG1 8DB

More information can be found on our website by clicking here.

Do I need to wait for your work to be completed before I submit a claim?

No - we are more than happy to start the assessment of claim and to arrange interim payments which can be topped up as income during the period of interruption

How quickly will my claim be reviewed?

We aim to review claims within two working days of receipt and we will make contact with you at that stage to confirm if we need any further information. Once our assessment has been completed, we will confirm the calculation to you. It does take between two and three weeks for the payments to be posted to your account following agreement of the compensation sum.

Is there a minimum trading period for business to claim?

If you are a new business, we can still review your claim. Please submit as much information as you can and we will get in touch with you and discuss what support we can provide.

Supporting our customers

We will have our Customer Representatives on West Street every Thursday between 10am and 2pm. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to them and they will be more than happy to support you or answer any questions you may have.

Once again, I would like to apologise for any impact this event has had to our customers and we’d like to thank you for your patience whilst we carry out these necessary repairs.

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