Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County in Ireland has awarded the project to build and operate the Shanganagh Bray Main Drainage Scheme to DRACE medioambiente together with DRAGADOS and a local partner for 162.4 million euros.

The project consists of designing and building a new wastewater treatment plant and operating it for 20 years. This job represents a business portfolio worth over 162 million euros. It will take approximately two years to build the treatment facility.

The new treatment plant will have the capacity to treat 43,750 m³ of wastewater per day and will serve over 186,000 inhabitants in the area. The plant will have a secondary treatment that will reduce the organic pollution and suspended solids by more than 90% to substantially improve the quality of the treated water dumped into the sea. Further processing in the same plant will turn the biosolids into fertilizer for agricultural purposes.

The treated water will be dumped into Dublin Bay through a 6 km long marine outfall that already exists.

The sludge will be treated by anaerobic digestion, mechanical spin drying and thermal drying using heat generated by a cogeneration system.

Not only does this project assure that the water obtained will meet the national and European legal requirements, but it will significantly improve the quality of the beaches in the area.

The construction project for the treatment plant takes into great consideration the concerns about odours, noise, visual impact and traffic mentioned in the Environmental Impact Study. Due to the plant's location very near residential areas, a great effort has been dedicated to controlling odours whereby practically all of the process units, including the secondary decanters, will be covered. Furthermore, an odour dispersion model has been applied to assure compliance with the maximum acceptable limits.

With this award, DRACE medioambiente continues its international expansion, demonstrating its consolidation as one of the most prominent companies in the field. Its capacity for international expansion is being fulfilled by a number of offers currently pending decision in other countries.