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Jubilee Park

When standing on the platform of one of London’s busiest tube stations, many people are unaware of what is happening above their heads, beyond the concrete amidst the hustle and bustle of the modern day city.

In 2002, Ocmis were commissioned to design and install an automatic irrigation system to the inner city park area being developed above the Jubilee line station in Canary Wharf. Jubilee Park is to be used by the general public, creating a place of relaxation and tranquillity amongst the turmoil of city life.

Shrubs, grass, trees and wall planting are all irrigated using a variety of spray, mist and drip watering techniques, all centrally controlled by a PC based system located within the Canary Wharf Management building.

Positioned within a below ground purpose built plantroom, an Ocmis central booster pumping system comprising two Lowara SV Series pumps, provides the required water to the system. The pumping units, capable of providing up to 20,000 litres per hour, incorporate Lowara Hydrovar variable frequency drives, to allow the pump speeds to be automatically adjusted to meet the varying demands of the modern irrigation system.

Water is provided by a 15,000 litre GRP break tank within the plantroom, incorporating automatically controlled water infill and pH monitoring adjustment systems.

The inclusion of a proportional fertilizer injection system into the irrigation pump station discharge manifolds, allow the park maintenance staff to apply fertiliser to the planted areas during an irrigation cycle, minimising the need for manual labour input.

Through some 5,000 linear metres of underground medium density polyethylene (MDPE) pipework, the water is distributed to the required areas via 70 individual control valves.

With a wide variety of planting types, the diversity of irrigation requirements is extensive, grassed areas utilise some 300 pop-up sprinklers and spray heads with shrub and wall planting using pressure compensating drip emitter tubing (Over 12,000 metres) for low rate water application. The many trees around the park are watered using a necklace of ‘Push-In’ type drip emitters, which are again, pressure compensating to allow even water distribution.

Ultimately this wide and varied irrigation system would be wasted if not operated accurately and effectively. A Rain Bird Nimbus II, decoder control system manages and maintains Jubilee Park’s water requirements.

The control system features an AutoCAD® ‘as-built’ drawing as a backdrop, and allows the user to ‘point and click’ to operate individual stations. Automatic watering schedules are produced and maintained with ease through user-friendly menus. Using the ‘Dry-Run’ facility, schedules can be simulated without actually operating any valves in the park, offering a chance for the operator to test a schedule before placing it into an automatic sequence.

The Nimbus II also uses ‘Flo Manager™’, a management system whereby the designed flow characteristics of the underground pipe network are utilised to maximum efficiency but never allowed to exceed preset limits assisting to lower water demand, reduce system wear and save energy.

‘Offsite’ access to the control system is facilitated by using remote control software. This permits trained Ocmis personnel to access the password protected system to make any required adjustments, additional customer training or remote fault diagnostics.

The complete system will give Jubilee Park and the Canary Wharf Management team many years of reliable, accurate and trouble free irrigation, helping to promote and preserve a small pocket of public space in an ever increasing concrete jungle.

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