Safely loading out the intake head for Hinkley Point C

Our team on the Hinkley Point C project, successfully loaded out the last 5,000 tonne intake heads. The four “intake” and two “outfall” heads were built by our team in Avonmouth. Each “loading out” operation, takes several hours, with the water levels being adjusted at the dock, to ensure the barge can receive the load safely and securely.

[@Ozturw]

Absolutely brilliant, very proud of the BB colleagues and everybody involved

[@raimundaraimundatiagagoste8020]

Nos maravilha muito bom

[@Tom60264]

Well done Balfour Beatty UK

[@stevewaite4584]

Fantastic 👏👏👏

[@gunsumwong3948]

The shape looks a bit too complicated to me. The requirement of an intake head is to have a large intake area to slow down the velocity so that fishes are not forcibly sucked in. Possibly at around 1/3 m/s depending on the species. The velocity of the tunnel would be sub 2m/s as anything higher is a waste of energy and unnecessary deepening of the intake pump chamber. The intake head also need chlorination equipment to discourage marine life entering the work and use it as home. Faster velocity means more food available so all intake system eventually will get fouled up with marine life and need cleaning out. This intake head does have provisions like the big circular hole at the roof for accessing the interior and removal of marine deposits. It is likely a French design used in France but whole unit could have been a standard tunnel section full of removal screens. I would prefer removable screen made of plastic element to reduce corrosion. During maintenance the diver can remove the old screen set full of marine lives attachments, install the new set and reduce the outage to the minimum. The screen of this intake head looks immovable to me.