Project outline

Leixlip Water Treatment Plant supplies approximately 30% of the Greater Dublin Area’s water supply and is a critical piece of infrastructure serving residents and supporting economic growth across the city.

Murphy designed, constructed and commissioned an 80MLD expansion of the plant to meet growing demand and also completed extensive upgrade and integration works within the existing facility. The project increased overall production capacity at the plant to 255MLD.

Key challenges

Leixlip Water Treatment Plant is critical to meeting demand in the Greater Dublin Area including major industrial customer who are dependent on the quality and availability of the supply for the operations.

The key project challenge was to maintain operational performance and production levels throughout the project. The requirements to deliver a new raw water intake from the River Liffey to serve both the existing and new plants was particularly challenging in this regard.

Successful execution on this task was achieved through a combination of design innovation, careful planning and close collaboration between the Murphy project delivery team and Fingal County Council’s plant operations team. 

Project Delivery & Innovations 

The scope of works constructed and commissioned by Murphy on this project included:

• Upgrade to the raw water intake including passive drum screens to serve the new and existing plant (255MLD capacity).
• Upgrading of raw water intake pumping station.
• New sedimentation tanks (80MLD capacity).
• New rapid gravity filters (80MLD capacity).
• New OSEC system for the combined works.
• 14,000m3 twin cell clearwater storage tank.
• Expansion of washwater and sludge processing facilities including new sludge plate press and dewatered sludge handling.
• MV and LV power distribution infrastructure.
• Integrated control and communications system for the existing and expanded plant including new site wide SCADA system.
• Extensive refurbishment works within the existing plant including the rapid gravity filters and backwash pumping system.
• Process commissioning, integration and optimisation.

Key facts:

• No interruption to drinking water supplies during project delivery.
• 46% increase in capacity with improved reliability.
• Improved sustainability through use of recycled grey water.
• 335,000 man-hours of work with no accidents or RIDDOR incidents on site