Binnies, an engineering design and consultancy company owned by RSK Group, has been awarded a tender of SGD 28.8 million (USD 21.25 million) by PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency, to provide professional engineering services to reconstruct and transform Choa Chu Kang Waterworks (CCKWW), one of Singapore’s oldest water treatment plants, into a state-of-the-art drinking water treatment plant which uses the latest water treatment technologies and smart features to allow full automation. The project will start in 2022 and is expected to be completed in 2026.
According to PUB, once completed, the treatment plant will be a fully integrated and automated plant. It will have features such as autonomous systems to reduce manpower for labor-intensive tasks such as chemical preparation for the water treatment process. It will also have online sensors to monitor and predict the condition and performance of equipment such as pumpsets in real-time. New rooftop solar panels will also be added to the existing 1 megawatt-peak system, to power the plant’s operational needs and reduce its carbon footprint.
The treatment plant was built in two phases in 1975 and 1981. It treats 80 million gallons of water from Kranji, Pandan, Tengeh, Sarimbun and Murai reservoirs, the equivalent to 145 Olympic-sized swimming pools. It was upgraded with an investment of SGD 162 million (USD 119.5 million) back in 2019, which involved the construction of a new facility as well as the installation of ceramic membranes and ozone-biological activated carbon filters to facilitate advanced water treatment processes.
According to William Yong, Managing Director for Binnies Singapore, “The Choa Chu Kang Waterworks Reconstruction project will provide PUB with a blueprint for future water plants that adopt advanced digital technology in its operations and maintenance and Binnies”.
(Sources: RSK Group, PUB)