Northumbrian water and Mott Macdonald Bentley were fortunate enough to be invited into Escomb Primary School.

The children of Escomb Primary School made our day!!

The project will impact on some of the children’s travel to school as a footpath will be closed, as we are working near the school we thought this was a prime opportunity to engage with school and demonstrate the importance of Health & Safety on a construction site.

Some of the project team and I presented a challenge to the children and some teachers on the importance of keeping safe when on site. Both children and teachers had to choose and dress up in the correct safety clothing which they all loved. Especially when a teacher had her/his toes trampled on…….. whilst wearing safety boots of course!!!

Our visit ended with us taking 14 children (mini police) for a walk to view our site.

Thanks to the site team who were happy to assist as they gave the children a demo of the digger.

All “Mini Police” received one of our safety certificates!

Thank you Escomb Primary.

Good morning All, just wanted to share with you some of the amazing art work the children of Ecomb Primary school have handed in for our Wildlife art competition. There are so many amazing pieces of artwork you have made it extremely difficult to choose!

Over the coming weeks we will be arranging with the school to come in, announce the winners and hand out prizes! 

Hello, I would just like to thank everyone who attended our event at Escomb Primary school. It was fantastic to meet you all and your comments and feedback have been taken away. However, I must say they were all extremely positive and supporting of our planned work. I must also thank the Head teacher of the school who was very accommodating and supporting of the event and I excited to be working with her and the kids over the coming months on a community project.

Just to confirm we are starting work on site, week commencing 22nd October. The work is predominantly on farm land so visually this shouldn’t have much impact in the Village.

Our team on site are

Steve Coles – Site Agent

James Dowell – Site Engineer

Sarah Jayne Vickers – Customer Liaison Officer

During our programme of work there are going to be some interruptions to the public footpaths, I have included a map to show these. The footpath to the rear of Becket Close, will be fully closed for the duration of the programme, the path from Becket Close up over the Bridge Rail crossing, to the pumping station at the end of Dunelm Chare will be intermittently close, and we will provide notice as and when we intend of closing this. However, we do hope to keep this section open as much as possible. Where these paths both meet the cross section will be maintained and we will operation a level crossing as such to ensure safety of the residents.

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below or send us an email using the contact us button at the top of the page.

Hi, my name is Peter Greenan and I’m the Project Manager for the Escomb Rising Main Project. This project involves replacing the failing pumping main pipe from Escomb Pumping Station to Etherley Moor.  This pipe has suffered a number of bursts since 2006 due to pipe’s age and condition.

The new pipeline route is just under 1 mile (1.4km) in length and follows the existing Public Right of Way including the existing footbridge over the Weardale Railway.  A new connection to an existing manhole in Etherley Lane is planned which will require a very short period of traffic management.  The new pipe is approximately 4 inch (100mm) diameter and will be laid at nominal depth of approximately 4 feet (1.2m).  The footpath will require a diverting, when the new pipe is being installed at the footbridge, which will be notified separately through Durham County Council.

We are hoping to commence construction in Mid-October 2018 and estimate a 6 month construction period.   Our Framework Contractor, MMB (Mott McDonald Bentley), will be delivering stone to the the existing pumping station in Escomb Village week commencing  the 10th September in preparation of the construction contract.  MMB have carried out a door knocking/letter drop exercise to customers that are directly affected by this work.

We would like to seek the views of customers that would be affected so that we can take account of these during the construction phase of the project;  we will contact customers by letter shortly and are holding a public event between 3 and 6:30pm on Wednesday 19th September at Escomb Primary School.

Alternatively, you can leave your comments on this update or get in touch using the ‘contact us’ button at the top of the page.  Thank you for reading this update.