Portlaoise Wastewater Treatment Plant

This design, build and operate (DBO) project saw Laois County Council engage Murphy to deliver a major refurbishment and expansion of Portlaoise Wastewater Treatment Plant in Ireland. The project delivered a capacity upgrade at the plant from 26,000 PE to 39,000 PE in addition to developing the site as a sludge hub for final processing of sludge from across the midlands region.

Prior to this project development in the town of Portlaoise had been greatly hindered by a lack of adequate wastewater treatment infrastructure. Murphy continue to manage the upgraded facility which has delivered improvements to the local environment and facilitated economic growth in the area.

Portlaoise Wastewater Treatment Plant discharges in the River Triogue. The limited flow in this river places constraints on the plant requires treatment of effluent discharges to a consistently high quality.

Murphy delivered a robust and resilient solution which is design to consistently meet these requirements as well as deal with short term shock loading of the works. Our operations team has continued to consistently deliver excellent treatment performance since the plant was commissioned.

The solution designed, constructed and commissioned by Murphy includes:

• New intake pumping station.
• New preliminary treatment works (screening and grit removal).
• Expanded activated sludge plant design for 200% peak loading capacity.
• Activated sludge plant includes 4 no. new aeration basins and repurposing of existing aeration basins as 2 no. anoxic tanks.
• 1 no. new and 1 no. refurbished secondary settlement tank.
• 4 no. rapid gravity tertiary filters.
• Phosphorous removal using chemically assisted precipitation.
• New sludge processing plant including import reception facility, thickening, dewatering and thermal dryer.
• Odour control systems.
• Full upgrade of MV and LV electrical infrastructure.
• New ICA system including PLCs, fibre optic network and SCADA system.

Murphy were responsible for operation of the plant throughout the design-build works.