Ageing equipment at a Lincolnshire pumping station was beginning to pose increased maintenance costs as well as potential health and safety concerns for the operators. The solution required the installation of a new, reliable system from ECS Engineering Services that would reduce the overall operating costs and improve safety. Maintaining the land drainage scheme in Lincolnshire is an important task for the Environment Agency (EA) and the pumping stations used to control water levels are protected by weedscreens to prevent damage to the pumps. The equipment at the Dirtness station had been in service for over 60 years. Originally housing a beam engine produced by James Watt, the station has been performing crucial water level control operations for nearly 150 years. The original steam equipment was replaced in 1928 with the current equipment being installed in 1952, which included a rotary screen designed to remove the debris from the water and deposit it on the bridge over the watercourse. The design of the old rotary screen required a small tractor to regularly remove the resultant debris from the bridge. However, as the tractor equipment has grown in size so the mechanised method had become impossible, so the more recent method had involved reverting back to the trusted wheelbarrow. In addition, when the temperatures dropped in winter ice would build up on the screen and reduce water flow through the station. This required regular intervention by the maintenance staff to break up the ice to ensure the pumping station operated efficiently.
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