Cost Saving Example

£222,500 in just 9 months

Project: Savings made using FT’s Stop Tap Lids

Customer: Yorkshire Water

Details: Yorkshire Water (YW) has been using our replacement, lockable stop tap lids for over 15 years. The average cost to YW to carry out a complete reinstatement of all types of frame and lid is £330. Whenever possible they will simply replace the lid which, including the cost of a street furniture operative visit, averages £80 per lid. This means that Yorkshire Water saves £250 every time they replace a locking lid!

Between April and December 2016, YW used 890 lids of various shapes and sizes throughout their area. In just 9 months the company has saved £222,500 by not having to completely reinstate stop tap boxes.

Yorkshire Water comment: The YW Capital scheme for street furniture is allocated each year and always under severe pressure due to the amount of defective ironworks which we have across the region, therefore we rely upon innovative solutions to save both time and money. The locking lid concept allows us to only send one resource to site, they can complete the repair on their first inspection rather than relying on another team to be deployed to complete the works.

There are obvious cost savings on resource, planning, materials, traffic management etc. but also often these covers are reported missing by Highways so we have a duty to respond (under S81 NRSWA) within 2 hours, so it’s far better for us to send a man in a van to complete a repair than diverting a gang from planned works. Also obviously we minimise risk to pedestrians and road users with a timely repair.

The water company has continued to monitor its usage of replacement lids. Between April 2017 and April 2018, the number of Section 81 defects reported to Yorkshire Water was 3,226. One quarter of these jobs were able to be remedied by simply installing an FT locking lid (a 10-minute fix requiring only one operative), saving them a massive £335,000 over the 12 month period.