[INFO#4]
Oct/Nov/Dec 2020
Water from the Orval brewery
There's news among the yellow stones of the Trappist brewery: a long-awaited expansion is being built. This building will not increase the production capacity of the beer, which is often out of stock, but will improve the storage conditions and the efficiency to improve loading and unloading. This requires major earthworks. This is an opportunity to also address the sometimes very obscure bring sanitary facilities up to date.
For the benefit of the brewery
The brewery was built in 1931 to finance the reconstruction of the abbey. Since then, the most important works took place in 2001, with the addition of a first expansion, and they continue today with this second expansion.
This virtually subterranean building of 4,500 m2 will house up to 90,000 niches. This should free up the abbey courtyard. Finally, the new loading platform will be located on the roof of the building. All this, however, is merely the tip of the iceberg, because beneath the foundations, entirely different works are underway. Indeed, there is rainwater, production water—and sometimes even water of unknown origin—that must be collected and pumped up several meters.
The incredible collection
Lecomte SA, a contractor for road and sewer works, had several assignments, including the construction of a retention basin and the installation of pumping stations that can provide a solution to the specific characteristics of the site.
Indeed, the buried site lies 6 meters underground, at the level of the nearby river, and part of the water must be sent directly to the treatment plant located more than 800 meters away.
His representative, Christophe Rode, outlines the 3 main challenges: «Rapid installation of a buffer basin in a limited space, channeling and pumping the drainage water as well as the acidic and polluted water, all while lifting it to a height of ± 6 meters, and routing the wastewater to the treatment plant.»
The lightest and fastest method
The buffer basin was created by connecting two 45 m3 Tubao tanks together. The operation is extremely simple and reveals its many advantages. For Christophe Rode, this is one of the best solutions on the market: «This limited the duration of the excavation and caused little disruption to the brewery's operations. No other solution would have been faster.»
3 very different lifting chambers
Deschacht also supplied the three lifting stations that are needed for the different functions: pumping the rainwater from the lowest basement to the buffer basin, pumping the wash water to the sewer, and finally pumping the production water from the brewery and the cheese dairy to the nearby treatment plant.
This final pump pit is made of HDPE, making it resistant to the acidity of the water flowing through it. It will also be used to collect the water from all the old pipe networks expected to be uncovered during the excavation work.
When all of this is finished, not a single drop should be lost anymore. The Orval trout has never been such a justified symbol before.
Lecomte SA
- Location: 6810 Valansart (Chiny)
- Team: 15 workers + 4 office staff
- Date of establishment: 1929
- Activities: roads & surroundings
- Presentation: The company Lecomte, whose head office is located in Valansart, is a benchmark in the public roadworks sector in the province of Luxembourg. Its traditional activities are roadworks, sewerage works, water supply works, public space design, and the construction of roundabouts. Lecomte is part of the Joly group, which consists of several companies active in the field of roadworks. Joly offers solutions for the construction, renovation, and maintenance of roads and their surroundings.
More info about this project?
Contact Dimitri Steilen via [email protected] or via 0496 24 37 19.