Franklin Hodge were approached earlier this year by project managers developing a system to capture and filter rainwater, for use in the mist irrigation of rare plants in the Lower Nursery at Kew Gardens. In due course following discussions with the Kew Garden’s project team, Franklin Hodge recently completed the installation of a glass coated/glass fused to steel cylindrical water storage tank. The tank installed is 10.24m in diameter and 4.27m high, with a flat steel decking cover. Prior to the building of the new tank an existing leaking corrugated steel tank had to be dismantled and removed from its base.

Completion of the replacement tank was time critical, as the irrigation and mist system had to be operational as soon as possible after the former tank had been decommissioned and removed. In the Lower Nursery are housed some of the rarest plant species in the world, that require a moist environment to survive.

Measures were taken to help speed up the re-establishment of the irrigation and mist system. For example, the Franklin Hodge team were able to re-use the existing tank base, and pipe connections were cut on site, to accommodate the re-connection of existing pipework. Some of the connections were fitted tangentially, to accommodate the re-routing of the existing pipework.

Not only was the project technically successful, it was also completed in a tight programme of five days. Disturbance to the busy Kew Gardens programme of daily operations and works was kept to an absolute minimum.

The Franklin Hodge Industrial tank and company as a whole are proud to have been of assistance to and to be associated with, the critically important ecological and scientific work carried out by Kew Gardens.

For more information, contact our sales team on +44 (0) 1432 269605.