Supervision of Sewers for Adoption

Abstract

The Water Authorities Association guide ‘Sewers for Adoption’ has achieved considerable success in unifying practice and establishing well‐understood and recognized standards for the design and construction of sewers by developers under Section 18 of the Public Health Act 1936. However, the supervision provided by the adopting authorities — particularly in relation to supervision fees — has been an area of dispute for some time.The Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA) has recently completed a study on the optimum levels of supervision for sewer construction. The study included a national survey on the nature and extent of problems occurring during the course of Section 18 work and the supervision practices presently being undertaken. The study puts forward recommendations on the nature and timing of periodic inspections undertaken during construction. Several specific problem areas are discussed, ranging from measures required to ensure that design submissions are of an adequate standard, to the timing of any pre‐adoption closed‐circuit television inspection. This paper draws upon the contents of the report and discusses some of the principal findings and recommendations of the study.