Top tier win for Mott MacDonald Bentley at British Construction and Infrastructure Awards
- Hannah Tetlow
- 8 hours ago
- 3 min read
Winning the ‘Water Project of the Year’ award – plus picking up a further ten nominations spanning seven categories - Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB), JN Bentley (JNB) and JBA Bentley teams proudly represented our engineering excellence and industry impact at the highest level.
Held annually in London, the British Construction and Infrastructure Awards (BCIAs) recognise the very best projects, companies and teams across the UK in the construction and engineering sector – and with nearly 250 entries across 24 categories from over 100 organisations, this year’s competition was stronger than ever.
Alongside representatives from Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, the MMB team who have been part of the reservoir safety scheme at Llyn Celyn, in North Wales, proudly accepted the prestigious Water Project of the Year Award – a hotly contested, brand-new category for 2025. The award shines a light on outstanding projects within the UK water sector that are driving improvements in the resilience, quality, and sustainability of the country’s water and wastewater facilities.
As lead design and build contractor, MMB was appointed under Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water’s reservoir safety programme to design and build a new auxiliary spillway, with a culvert beneath the access road and a downstream section to convey water past the dam safely, alongside upgrades to the associated pipes and valves.
With a capacity of 81 million m3, Llyn Celyn is the largest reservoir by volume in Wales and one of the largest spillways constructed by MMB. The £45M scheme improves the safety, resilience and operational reliability of the critical asset and provides long-term resilience for the surrounding community.
This was a complex and large-scale dam safety project and required outstanding levels of collaboration and innovation across the whole team. Judges were impressed by the project, remarking:
“This was a well-planned, complex and potentially high-risk scheme, which included liaising with high profile stakeholders and navigating complex safety regulatory requirements. There was clear demonstration of collaborative and successful teamwork.
“The team demonstrated how they used both digital and physical modelling to develop the approach and reduced the size of the asset and thus reducing carbon. In addition, the project demonstrated positive collaboration with local stakeholders and a clear understanding of the history of the site and need for a sensitive approach.”
Following the win, MMB Director, Ian Bester, commented,
“Picking up an award for Water Project of the year, and for a Dams and Reservoirs project, acknowledges our engineering excellence in this specialist discipline. It’s been one of our flagship projects over the last couple of years, so it’s fantastic recognition for a collaborative team, that includes our client and supply chain – every aspect from start to finish has been exemplary. Congratulations to all involved!”
Gregory Cornelius, design lead at Mott MacDonald Bentley, said:
“I am thrilled to see our project recognised as 'Water Project of the Year'. As design lead on the scheme, I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved. Delivering such a complex project required true collaboration across a wide range of stakeholders, with everyone pulling together to make it happen. A fantastic team effort that resulted in something we can all be proud of.”
Find out more about the project at Llyn Celyn in this short video.
MMB, JN Bentley and JBA Bentley were named finalists across multiple categories. In addition, the JBA Bentley team were delighted to receive a ‘highly commended’ in the Innovation Impact category, for the design and delivery of a world-first modular fish pass at Meadowgate in South Yorkshire, using concrete fish tiles designed with the aid of CFD modelling.
A full list of the MMB, JNB and JBAB finalists is as follows:
Community and Social Value Impact: Beyond the Build - Delivering social value in Yorkshire (MMB)
Engineering Excellence Award: Newthorpe and Heanor Milnhay AMP7 upgrades (MMB)
Engineering Excellence Award: Springwell Service Reservoir and Pipeline (MMB)
Engineering Excellence Award: Meadowgate (Don Regulators) (JBA Bentley)
Innovation Impact Award: Strongford Net Zero Hub (JN Bentley)
Net Zero Carbon Impact Award: Strongford Net Zero Hub (JN Bentley)
Sustainability and Environmental Impact: Meadowgate (Don Regulators) (JBA Bentley)
Upgrade and Renewal Project of the Year: Aire and Calder Navigation Flood Landslide Repair Project (JN Bentley)
Upgrade and Renewal Project of the Year: Llyn Celyn Section 10 MITIOS Works (MMB)
Upgrade and Renewal Project of the Year: Meadowgate (Don Regulators) (JBA Bentley)
Water Project of the Year: Newthorpe and Heanor Milnhay AMP7 upgrades (MMB)
