We are proud of our heritage, having helped clients across the globe solve complex water and environmental challenges for more than 100 years. Below are just some of the projects we have worked on...
Our City Our River is an award-winning scheme in which Derby City Council, the Environment Agency, Binnies and other delivery partners have taken a long-term view of climate resilience for the city of Derby.
The scheme has directly addressed the challenge we all face in the spatial planning along rivers through our cities to ensure we remain resilient to climate change. Our pioneering approach combined strategic objectives to:
The scheme originated in the need to reduce the significant flood risk along the lower Derwent that was stifling the city’s economy. Difficult decisions have had to be made on how to provide sustainable flood risk management to the 2,250 properties at risk from flooding, including over 1,450 homes, nearly 800 vital businesses, key elements of infrastructure and many important historic buildings.
Keadby Pumping Station is an important asset, protecting homes, businesses and agricultural land from flooding. The terminal assisted outfall (TAO) required upgrading and modernisation to ensure the continued operation of the pumping station as resilience and reliability had been lost due to age, obsolescence and general wear and tear, resulting in the need for a major investment.
Previous business cases had failed to find a viable solution but Binnies reduced costs by £12 million through an alternative design, enabling the reuse of the building structure and avoiding a complete rebuild. This cost reduction made the project viable and reduced the carbon footprint of the project by 90%.
The project team assisted in the development of the strategic case for investment alongside an update to the Isle of Axholme Flood Risk Management Strategy and worked closely with the strategy asset management and delivery group to ensure that stakeholder engagement was central to the delivery of the project.
GB JV Ltd, a joint venture between Binnies and Galliford Try, has been the sole engineering design and build provider for the outline business case, final business case, design and now the construction stage.
The Southern Strategic Support Main serves a dual purpose to the Bristol Water network. Primarily, it provides resilience to both the southern & northern supply zones, removing 280,000 people from risk of a single asset failure.
Secondly, it helps to support the growth in the southern zone by providing an additional 22.5 Ml/d to this zone. The scheme addresses known risks including impact of drought events (resistance), increased demands, deterioration of water quality and algae blooms (reliability), power & asset failure (redundancy) and managing service failures (response and recovery).
Binnies developed and analysed a long list of over 30 different options to determine the optimum means of providing a resilient supply, considering a combination of pipeline, treatment, pumping and reservoir solutions. The resulting solution was a 30km long pipeline linking three water treatment works, providing mutual resilience and minimising pumping and reducing environmental impacts.
We delivered the concept, outline and detailed design, environmental consultancy and construction support. Our multi-disciplinary, seconded team worked collaboratively with Bristol Water, suppliers and the supply chain to leverage innovation and efficiencies.
The River Thames Scheme (Surrey and SW London) is the largest fluvial flood defence scheme currently under development in the UK. This complex, multi-discipline project embraces state-of-the-art technical approaches in providing 150 m3/s additional conveyance to 32km of the River Thames.
The River Thames Scheme will create a new flood channel to reduce the risk of flooding to 15,000 homes and 2,400 businesses. The extensive environmental engineering, planning, fluvial and groundwater modelling and monitoring has established baselines and biodiversity net gain improvements as part of a long-term sustainable outcome.
Our solutions align policy advice and environmental strategy and are supported by the regulatory compliance bodies. The scheme reflects the need to adapt to climate change as flooding increases. It represents a transformational opportunity for new habitats and re-landscaped environments for local communities.
The Transforming the Trent Valley (TTTV) scheme creates positive change for wildlife, built heritage and communities. The £4.7 million scheme, partially funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, is a partnership of 18 organisations delivering a wide range of environmental, cultural and community-led projects across 200 square kilometres.
Examples of projects being delivered through the scheme include restoring rivers and floodplains, improving pathways and cycleways, and creating ways to reconnect communities with their natural heritage. Work on the scheme began in 2019 and will continue for at least five years.
Binnies, an RSK company, was commissioned to map and value the habitats and land cover – our natural capital – within the TTTV study area. We set up an online ‘Storymap’ so the public can explore the area’s habitats (the natural capital stock), the environmental benefits we get from them (the flows or ecosystem services) and the economic benefits they give us (their value), for example, reduced healthcare or water-treatment costs.
