Hi

With all the rain last week and cold temperatures the ground is very wet and unlikely to dry out, therefore, we've booked a roadbrush daily to clean the road between Dene Close and Wheatfield Close. Unfortunately, we will alway get some mud on the road in this line of work, however we will keep an eye on it and order additional roadbrushes as required. 

Simon

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well and looking forward to the weekend.

I would like to report our progress on the wider project. As you know Northumbrian Water are working collaboratively with Northumberland County Council to deliver the surface water management scheme and as part of our Rainwise initiative.

You will have seen from the recent updates that the Rainwise work at Dene Close is progressing well. On completion of the Dene Close work we will be relocating to the Castle View / Piper Road junction to undertake a short section of sewer upsize works. Three way traffic management will be in place on this junction while these works are underway. This work is expected to commence on the 11th December and will take up to two weeks, we are making every effort to complete before the Christmas break. Despite it being out of season the Dene Close open space will be landscaped with grass seed and this will be closely monitored over the winter months. We will return in spring to ensure the grass is fully established.

At our drop-in session in September, we told you that Northumberland County Council were in discussion with landowners in order to establish a date for the surface water management work behind Dene Garth and in the playing fields, to begin. Discussions remain ongoing and we have agreed to postpone the work until spring in order to avoid carrying out the work through mid-winter. This will help us to avoid risking long-term damage to the land.

We are working together to agree a start date in 2018 for this part of the work and we will to keep you informed.

The team will continue to post regular updates, if you have any queries or want to make us aware of any additional assistance you require from us then please use the ‘Contact us’ button at the top of this page or post on this feed.

Thanks

Ian

HI Everyone

I've been in touch with Iain Cunningham who is managing the site this week as Simon is on holiday and he has provided me with an update and few photos from around the site.

Work has slowed a little this week as we have come across unexpected services in the ground. We have been digging trial holes to investigate a little further and to avoid damaging any of them! We have also taken heed of the high wind weather warnings and ensured that the fencing is secured tightly.

Thanks for the update and photos Iain!

Tony

Hi

Vinnie and Bernie have had another productive week, the tank area has been backfilled, connections were made in and out of the tank and a manhole has been built. Next week we plan to install drainage along the connecting footpath from the tank area to Dene Close. The footpath will be closed from 39 to 42 Piper Road and we will need access off Dene Close.

Simon

Hi

It's all gone to plan this week, Vinnie & Bernie have done a great job installing the tank without a hitch. I have been asked this week about the strength of the cells and their capacity to hold water. Once backfilled, the cells are designed to take weights in excess of 3 tonne, which is way more than the weight of the grass cutters used on the area. Each cell also has 95% void of its total volume, for example, a 100m3 tank built out of these cells will hold 95m3 of water. If you have any other queries, please get in touch with me.

Next week we'll be tidying up the tank area, starting again on the pipework and building a manhole all within the grassed area.

Simon

Hi

On Wheatfieald Close and Dene Close we've have a productive week installing drainage and excavating the tank. It is a very tight site for the size of the tank and for the amount of materials which need to be moved around. This is slightly hindering progress, however, we are managing this and still working within the timescale.

The tank will be delivered next week in two halfs, the 1st on Tuesday and the 2nd on Thursday, so....if all goes to plan most of the tank will be in the ground by the end of the week. We haven't got space to off load these deliveries directly onto site, we will have to park the wagon on Wheatfield Close as close as we can to the site entrance, then bring each pallet onto site with a miniature forklift. We will have a banksman on the street to assist with the off-loading, please park mindfully to allow us sufficient access on both days. 

Thanks

Simon

HI Everyone

I've been on my travels to Ovingham today to attend our site progress meeting. I'm sure Simon will keep you up to date with how well things are going, but I took the opportunity to take a couple of photos of the lads at work, digging on the green off Piper Road.

I'll be back soon and hope to chat to some of you then, if you see me around and have any questions, feel free to stop me and ask away!

Tony

Hi, I'm Simon the Site Agent for the scheme. I'll keep you updated with progress and planned work. I'm based in our compound at Wylam Pumping Station on Ovingham Road and I will be visiting the site several times a day. If you have any queries please just stop me and ask or send me a message via this portal. I'll do my best to help, if I cant answer your query I will get it to the person who can for you.

We got the compound set up last week so now we can concentrate our efforts on the drainage and tank behind Wheatfield Close & Dene Close. The site is fenced off, and we started to install an access road yesterday off Wheatfield Close. It'll take a couple of days to strip off the topsoil from the areas where the drainage and tank are going and hopefully we will get a start this week with the drainage connection into the existing manhole.

Simon

Hi everyone,

Following on from Ian Davison I thought it would be a great time to introduce our team who will be working in your area, working on behalf of Northumbrian Water.

My name is Christine Taylor, the Customer Service Manager working for ESH-MWH on behalf of Northumbrian Water.   

Myself and Ian Davison visited some of the residents who live close to the work the other week, trying to ensure you are kept informed of what will be happening.  Now the works have began, you may see me or my colleague Tony Birkett walking around the area with the project team.  Please feel free to come and introduce yourself and ask any questions you may have.

Our project team is a small group of people (see below) who along with other very important responsibilities, will be updating the portal regularly to ensure everyone is kept update of our progress and any traffic management updates. 

The Project Team

David Player, the Contracts Manager for the scheme working for ESH/MWH on behalf of Northumbrian Water Ltd. He will oversee the works on site, installing new connections to the public sewers.  David will work closely with the Site Team to deliver the project. 

Simon Bright is our Site Agent for the project, he will be working on site throughout the duration of the work; managing the daily operations of the scheme delivery.  If you want to speak to someone regarding the works, Simon will be around the area on a daily basis and is always happy to help.

Tony Birkett is our Community Liaison Officer, you may see him from time to time on site - knocking on doors and delivering notification letters.  Tony is always delighted to stop and chat, providing any assistance where he can.

All our site team are happy to help, so please feel free to approach them with any concerns.  We will all at some point be posting updates on the portal during the scheme.

See you all soon

Christine

Hi,

Thanks to everyone who came along to our information session on Thursday, held in the Reading Room. It was great to see so many of you there, speaking to our project managers and finding out more about the scheme, and how it affects you.

We had lots of information and plans to show you, but we brought along some delicious Rainwise cupcakes too, just to keep you going because we know we were there right on tea time and we didn't want any one going hungry! We hope you enjoyed them...I know we certainly did! :)

Ian, our project manager, is continuing to work with the team at Northumberland County Council and will let you know if you are going to be directly affected by the work. If you couldn't make the session on Thursday but would like to know more, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Thanks

Janine