Delivering one of the UK’s largest water infrastructure projects meant United Utilities needed complete confidence in the evidence behind every stage of delivery.
With field teams, contractors and regulators all contributing to the assurance process, information had to be captured accurately, reviewed quickly and remain traceable from site activity through to final handover.
eviFile gave United Utilities a single digital process for capturing and managing that evidence as work happened. The result was an estimated 4,000 hours saved each year, regulator handback times reduced by 50%, and rework cut to 10%.
“Using eviFile has brought benefits across the whole project supply chain, including stakeholders and regulators.”
William Eyre, Head of Construction SERVICES, United Utilities
Connecting West Cumbria to a More Sustainable Water Supply
The £300 million West Cumbria Water Supplies project involved constructing a 100km pipeline from Thirlmere Reservoir into the wider regional network, providing around 80,000 homes and businesses with a more reliable and sustainable water supply.
Its scale created a significant assurance challenge. Hundreds of evidence packs were in progress at any one time, covering quality, health and safety, environmental compliance and civil engineering activity. Each depended on information being captured by different teams and contractors before it could be reviewed, approved and submitted.
Under the previous paper-based process, some packs took months to complete. Missing or inconsistent records were often only identified later, when the work had moved on and the people involved were no longer immediately available. That made gaps harder to resolve, increased admin effort and created the risk of delays, corrective work and incomplete submissions.
With United Utilities also reporting to Ofwat, the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate, it needed a more reliable way to build a clear, auditable record of delivery from the outset.
Building Complete Evidence Packs as Work Happened
United Utilities introduced eviFile to bring assurance evidence into one shared data environment. Teams could capture evidence directly on site and connect it to the relevant activity, rather than assembling it after work was complete. This let them:
- Manage hundreds of evidence packs simultaneously
- Capture timestamped and geolocated records on site
- Link evidence directly to individual work activities
- Identify missing information before work progressed
- Generate complete digital evidence packs in seconds
- Share reporting to support Outcome Delivery Incentive compliance
Programme teams could now see incomplete or non-compliant records while work was still live, and act immediately, rather than discovering gaps at handover.
Identifying Issues Before They Became Rework
With current site information available in one place, quality and compliance issues surfaced much earlier. Tasks could be raised, assigned and tracked to completion before they affected handover or created further work downstream.
Progress, quality, environmental and health and safety information sat in a shared view, giving field operatives, contractors and programme leaders access to the same current record of delivery. For stakeholders and regulators, that meant a clearer line of sight between what happened on site and the evidence being reported.
For United Utilities, it meant less time chasing information, fewer late corrections, and greater confidence that assurance requirements were being met as work progressed.
Saving 4,000 Hours a Year and Cutting Rework to 10%
Remote access to current site information cut the need for physical site visits by 20%. Regulator handback times fell by 50%, because supporting evidence had already been captured, checked and organised. Earlier intervention on incomplete or non-compliant records helped bring rework down to 10%, against an industry average of 25%.
Across the programme, reductions in admin, site visits and corrective work saved an estimated 4,000 hours a year, with projected annual savings of £189,000.
More than the numbers, United Utilities gained visibility and control throughout delivery instead of piecing the picture together at the end. Evidence was captured once, at source, and stayed connected to the work it supported, giving project teams a more efficient way to manage assurance, and giving stakeholders and regulators greater confidence in the final record.
By building assurance into the work itself, United Utilities could spend less time proving what had happened and more time keeping the programme moving.
