Southampton-based Trant Engineering signs contract worth up to £20m with Portsmouth Water

An initial four-year framework agreement has been awarded by Portsmouth Water to water sector specialist Trant Engineering.

Worth up to £20 million, the contract to maintain and improve assets above and below the ground includes the option of a five-year extension.

The investment programme is for the remainder of Portsmouth Water’s seventh asset management period (AMP7) to 2025 and an extension would cover the AMP8 regulatory period to 2030.

Portsmouth Water supplies clean drinking water from boreholes, springs and a river to 320,000 properties in Hampshire and West Sussex, including Portsmouth, Havant, Hayling Island, Emsworth, Chichester and Bognor Regis.

Trant Engineering, headquartered in Southampton and a Solent 250 company, has worked on bespoke projects for Portsmouth Water for more than 15 years, including the design, installation and commissioning of ultraviolet disinfection technology.

Bob Taylor, Portsmouth Water’s chief executive, and Gerry Somers, Trant Engineering’s UK managing director, signed the contract at Portsmouth Water’s head office in Havant, near Portsmouth.

Taylor said: “Portsmouth Water has a laser focus on delivering industry-leading performance – operationally and in customer service – in a dynamic era of water resilience, sustainability, technology and regulatory accountability.

“Trant Engineering has consistently proved itself to be a leading contractor to the water industry and its collaborative ‘one team’ approach, innovation and can-do attitude has been well-received.”

James Henderson, director – process and water, Trant Engineering, said: “Our cost-reimbursement business model, aligned with collaborative working with Portsmouth Water, means we can efficiently and effectively deliver a programme of maintenance and new works. The framework agreement builds upon a long and trusted relationship with Portsmouth Water spanning three decades.”

Scope of work includes water treatment works, pumping stations, service reservoirs, pressure-reducing values, water treatment processes and equipment, boreholes, reservoirs, pumping stations and monitoring equipment and systems.

Disciplines by Trant Engineering cover Mechanical, Electrical, Instrumentation, Control and Automation (MEICA) and other specialist activities such as chlorine and sulphur dioxide gas systems, hatch alarms for reservoir and water treatment works, borehole and reservoir rehabilitation work, cathodic protection and telemetry work.

Civil engineering and building works by Trant Engineering, which employs 750 people, are also included within the non-infrastructure investment programme.

"A series of collaborative workshops with Portsmouth Water and Trant Engineering have already been rolled out successfully," Henderson added.

Portsmouth Water, which continues to maintain its position of delivering the lowest water bills in England and Wales, does not own or operate wastewater facilities.