When Uckfield Community Hospital in Kent suspected it had the potential to develop a leak problem with the fuel system for its Volvo back-up petrol generator, it called in the expertise of DP Fuel Tank Services (DP FTS).
To provide the hospital with a system that will last it for at least another 20 years, DP FTS put together a plan to line the 13,500ltr underground storage tank, below the hospital car park, and replace all the pipework with modern plastic pipes.
For DP FTS’s strategic partners RPM to line the tank, it had to be completely emptied and cleaned. This, and the removal and replacement of all the pipework by DP FTS’s other strategic partner TVP, would have left the hospital without a back-up generator.
To avoid this DP FTS installed a temporary internally bunded plastic tank in the plant room and transferred 2,500ltrs of fuel to keep the hospital running for a few days in the event of a power cut. The other 8,500ltrs of fuel in the tank were uplifted into a tanker to be returned at the end of the project.
As well as cleaning the tank, DP FTS part of the project involved overseeing the whole contract, which included cutting a trench for the new pipe work and tracing the old pipe work to test the subsoil for any contamination, which, on this occasion, was absent. The car park was made good and once its partners had carried out their part of the undertaking, DP FTS returned the fuel to the newly lined tank and removed the temporary tank.