Public Utility Systems

In addition to traditional drainage design in connection with road and street design, VSO  has also seen to specialized consulting on drainage. Most of this has been in the preparation of comprehensive plans for improvements in municipal sewage systems in parallel with job design of individual stages.

In its work VSO’s guideline has been suitability, and the company has questioned the necessity of purification structures with cogent arguments. At the urging of municipalities, VSO Consulting gave a talk at the SATS meeting in 2002 on its vision of the projects lying ahead regarding municipal sewage affairs and whatt methods should be employed to solve them. An article about these matters was published in Sveitarstjórnarmál, Nos. 5 and 6, 2003.

In Bessastadir Parish VSO Consulting prepared a report on a solution for the parish’s sewage affairs, where environmental affairs and the suitability of solutions was the guideline. On the basis of the report, VSO Consulting designed the first and only pressure-conduit sewage system in Iceland, along with the associated discharge. This involves a system where sewage is pumped through PEH plastic pipes instead of draining through conduits by gravity. Such systems are suitable for a dispersed settlement on flat land, and where a gravity-drained system would end up extremely deep underground, with the associated costs. With a pressure-conduit sewer there is no need to worry about slope, and pipes are laid as close to the surface as possible.

A similar report on drainage was prepared for the Town of Sandgerdi. There, however, the solution was a traditional gravity-drained installation with pumping stations. VSO Consulting predesigned the entire system and has now job-designed its first stage. VSO Consulting has prepared reports on comprehensive plans for sewage system improvements in the municipalities below:

• Sandgerdi
• Bessastadir Parish
• Siglufjördur
• Thorlákshöfn
• Vogar á Vatnsleysuströnd
• Dalvík
• Vesturbyggð / Bíldudalur

In addition to the above-specified sewage projects, VSO Consulting has also prepared a plan and designed improvements for the water utility distribution system in Bessastadir Parish, Sandgerdi and Vogar. The goal is to ensure sufficient, secure water, for both drinking and firefighting.

For further information please contact Vilhjálmur Árni Ásgeirsson