Category: <span>News</span>

A new project for us at Thorne’s working on behalf of Epsom & Ewell Council to carry out the restoration of an historic pond in Rosebery Park, Epsom, Surrey.

The pond was built in the mid 1800’s and was generally used as a boating pond. Even though the pond was never intended to store fish we caught and removed over 200 fish with some of them weighing over 10lbs!

After pumping out the water it became clear that the silt levels were very high and as a result, Epsom Council have instructed us to arrange to have the silt removed. Despite weather conditions proving to be a challenge at times, the works are progressing and the fish all found a new home!

Work began towards the end of 2017 to replace the staircase at Birling Gap, a project commissioned to us by Wealden District Council. Despite the weather causing a few challenges along the way, the staircase was reopened on the 21^st of December 2017, in time for the busy Christmas holidays when the area attracts many visitors.

The new staircase has been relocated 5.8m north of the previous position tight against the existing cliff face, which is eroding at a rate of approximately 0.7m per year.

The plan going forward is to relocate the staircase every 8-10 years as a part of a Managed Retreat Programme that allows the chalk cliffs to erode naturally, instead of using man made techniques to try to halt the process. This is the third time that C J Thorne & Co have been involved in moving the staircase at this busy tourist location.

Well done to Rob, Harry and their team for a first-class job.

Whilst work continues at Bayham, the progress of the new reinforced concrete road bridge over the spillway starts to take shape.

Some of the team enjoyed a fantastic night out at the inaugural Uckfield FM Community Awards and C J Thorne were proud to sponsor a category for Emergency Service Person of the Year.

An inspiring evening and a great opportunity to learn about the town’s unsung heroes who go above and beyond to help the local community. The award was open to any person in the Emergency Services, First Response Units, Paramedics or other organisations which respond to incidents.

We had a lovely evening and were honoured to be part of such a special night with some amazing people.

The project at Woodmansterne WTW has made real progress over the last couple of months. The Rapid Gravity Filter building brickwork and blockwork is now complete as well as the CCT pipework and the Sample Building roof is due to be installed in the new year.

All concrete works in the Treated Water Pumping Station is finished with the vehicle access slab left to complete. Work is continuing on the Standby Generator Building, where the brickwork and blockwork is halfway to completion. We will then follow on with the roof installation.

The project at Uckfield Waste Water Treatment Works has progressed exceptionally well, reports John Collinge, Site Manager.

Due to the quality of work undertaken by the workforce and the quality of the management, the programme continues to remain on target as this great photo shows. Our £2m scope includes the civils operations associated with a power upgrade to the site, new Ferric and Alkalinity Dosing systems, Deep Bed Sand Filters, Pumping Stations, all associated pipework and ducting as well as modifications to existing assets to accommodate the improvements to the treatment process.

Following on from our successful completion of the construction of the new SANGS – Suitable Alternative Natural Green Space – at Walshes Park in Crowborough, we have now started on a similar project just outside Uckfield. The work currently taking place at Owlsbury Park involves creating 3 Kms of hard-surfaced paths linking the main access routes, as well as construction of timber boardwalks across existing ponds. Soil removed in the path construction will be used to form an acoustic bund at the bottom of the park to hide the nearby A22.

Congratulations to the pipelaying team at Beauport WTW on the successful completion of the complex 500mm dia. pipework from the new retaining wall and through the new chlorine dosing chamber, a particularly difficult operation with the pipe needing to be passed through three walls.

With the reinforced concrete works complete on the RGF structure as part of the £8m civils package at Woodmansterne WTW for SES Water, the steel frame building has followed on closely behind.

Fantastic performance by Thorne’s rounders team, who beat defending champions Neva Consultants in a tense final last week in a Charity event organised to raise funds for Chailey Heritage. Team captain Harry Bates received the trophy surrounded by teammates including CMDP’s Sam Scargill, who joined the team along with colleague Jen Glenister – collaborative working at its best!