Plumbing the depths at DHL

David Plumb & Co is using the expertise it gained on forecourts and other refuelling sites to help parcel delivery company DHL to trace the drains under 100 of its depots.

DHL’s estates department has been undertaking a major project to plot all the utility services in its depots.

Says David Plumb & Co director Nigel Plumb: “We have discovered over the years, when demolishing and decommissioning service stations, that even the best site plans hardly ever show all the underground services. The longer a site’s development history, the bigger the problem, and drainage systems are most likely to become lost, as, unlike gas and electricity, they are hardly ever cut off and removed when a building is demolished.”

In the case of DHL, it knew its drains and sewers worked, but it did not know where they went, so it contacted its pump supplier Gilbarco, which contacted David Plumb.

Says Nigel Plumb: “While this is not our main line of work, we have developed a considerable amount of expertise in tracing stray drains and other utilities, as we have to know where they are before we can begin excavating tanks; so we said we’d tackle the project.

“Many people think we use all sorts of hi-tec gadgets, such as scanners and endoscopes – and sometimes we do – but generally we use the simpler and more reliable method of opening all the outside manholes, pouring environmentally friendly dye down the sinks and toilets inside and watching where it goes. It’s only if that approach doesn’t provide a straightforward route that we need to turn to the gadgets,
“On the whole, it’s easier than dealing with old service station sites, where we usually don’t have the luxury of having somewhere to pour the dye.”

23 August 2006

  back to site map