WATER NETWORK IMPROVEMENT

Project Pipeline: County Durham and Tees Valley

This work will boost the resilience of supply links between our reservoirs and treatment works in Teesdale, and parts of central and southern County Durham. Our investment will increase reliability, reduce leakage and provide high quality drinking water for customers for decades to come. This phase of the project - Phase 1 - will construct a new replacement pipeline from Lartington Water Treatment Works to Gainford and a new strategic transfer main between Whorley Hill SR and Shildon SR.

Start Date

January, 2023

Estimated End Date

July, 2025

Contractor

Farrans

Further information

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Latest updates

By Karen Alexander

2 December, 2024 at 9:00AM

Good afternoon Stretching from Darlington to Edinburgh, the A68 is a key transport route for the North East, so laying a water pipe from one side to the other had the potential to prove disruptive to motorists. But engineers working on the first phase of our 57km Project Pipeline: County Durham and Tees Valley are working to avoid any impact on the highway! Working with our partners, Farrans Construction and specialists from HB Tunnelling, we’re micro-tunnelling under the road at Bildershaw, south of West Auckland. This way, we don’t have to dig up the road and either close it or put up traffic lights. Special “drive” and “reception” pits have been created on either side of the A68. It will take us between four and six weeks to pass the 60 metres from one side of the road to the other, helping to keep traffic on the A68 flowing, and the water flowing to more than 200,000 customers! Kind regards Karen Alexander Farrans’ Stakeholder and Social Value Co-ordinator

By Karen Alexander

21 August, 2024 at 9:42AM

Good morning, We’re working to improve the resilience of our network in Teesdale and parts of central and southern County Durham. Our £155m Project Pipeline: County Durham and Tees Valley investment will increase reliability, reduce leakage, and provide high quality drinking water for customers for decades to come. As part of this work, we’ll need to complete some preparation activity along the route. Our supply partner Farrans Construction will be carrying out work on our behalf and has worked with Durham County Council to arrange a short-term road closure. The road closure will be on the A688, to the north-east of Barnard Castle, heading towards Staindrop. The closure will be just south of the junction with Town Pasture Lane and will be from 7pm on Friday 13th September 2024 to 6am on Monday 16th September 2024. For a week on either side of this, the road will be kept open, but with three-way traffic lights between Monday 9th September 2024 and Friday 20th September 2024, to ensure the safety of motorists and our team. The official diversion will direct people travelling to and from the West Auckland area to travel via Darlington and the A67. A copy of the official diversion route is shown below. The diversion route will be put in place and clearly signposted on the roads, 2 weeks ahead of closure. There’ll be an impact on public transport as a result of the road closure. Five bus stops will be suspended, and Durham County Council will be arranging for notices to be placed on these bus stops one week ahead of the closure. We’re advising passengers to check public transport information prior to travel. A diversion route for buses has been agreed. This involves travelling through Stainton Village, along Dent Gate Lane and onto the B6278 Harmire Road and into Barnard Castle. Arriva and Weardale buses will notify passengers using posters in buses and bulletins on their websites during the week leading up to the weekend closure starting Friday 13 September 2024. Links to their websites are as follows: Arriva website https://www.arrivabus.co.uk/latest-news Weardale website Timetables (weardale-travel.co.uk) The Hodgson’s bus service, no 74, which serves Stainton Grove will not be running on Saturday 14 September 2024. Alternative arrangements will be put in place for its service users, details of which will be displayed at the bus stops and on posters on its buses. With all construction projects, unexpected delays can sometimes occur. Please be assured that we’re working closely with our partners to do all we can to minimise any disruption for you and your community throughout the work. In this instance, we’ll be working 24 hours a day throughout the weekend, to get the work done as quickly as possible to minimise disruption. If you’d like to speak to a member of our Project Team, you can telephone our customer contact centre on 0345 717 1100, tweet us @nwater_care or contact us via our community portal. Whichever way is best, we’d be happy to hear from you. Kind regards Karen Alexander Farrans’ Stakeholder and Social Value Co-ordinator

By Karen Alexander

24 July, 2024 at 2:24PM

Good afternoon We’re continuing to invest in new talent on the Project Pipeline site and have recently welcomed a third university placement student to our team, Ahmed Shehab. Ahmed is studying for his BEng degree in Civil Engineering, having moved to the UK from Italy in 2019. He’ll be with us for a year, until June 2025 and is currently supporting the commissioning team, working on calculations and assisting with technical aspects of the pipeline using AutoCAD. As well as graduating and building a career in engineering, Ahmed also has a keen interest in aeronautics and an ambition to gain his pilot’s licence. Kind regards Karen Alexander Farrans’ Stakeholder and Social Value Co-ordinator

By Karen Alexander

18 June, 2024 at 1:45PM

Good afternoon I’d like to introduce the latest two members of our Project Pipeline team – Zac Banham (pictured left) and George Hibbs (right), who have just completed the first year of their BEng degree in Civil Engineering. They will be spending a year with Farrans on placement at our site just outside of Barnard Castle, gaining valuable work experience to see how their learning translates into real life scenarios. Afterwards, they’ll return to Salford University to complete two further years of study. It’s a real pleasure to cultivate new talent on important infrastructure projects like this and we wish these guys every success! Kind regards Karen Alexander Farrans’ Stakeholder and Social Value Co-ordinator

By Karen Alexander

14 June, 2024 at 9:58AM

Good morning Last month saw a HUGE milestone for our 57km Project Pipeline: County Durham and Tees Valley team! This was the moment that ‘Penelope’, the tunnel boring machine, broke through to the west shaft, completing its 220m journey under the River Tees. The tunnelling took just under five weeks to complete, having started at the base of the 46 metre deep east shaft in early April, reaching the 32 metre deep west shaft on Wednesday 15th May. The machine was then lifted out using a special crane, with the team comprising Northumbrian Water, Farrans Construction and tunnelling specialists Joseph Gallagher Limited, set to make a start on the next phase. This will include sealing work before the twin water mains are installed horizontally through the tunnel. Putting two mains through the tunnel adds resilience to this £155m investment, ensuring a back-up is readily available in case of any problems. The pipeline will connect Lartington Water Treatment Works with around 200,000 customers to the south of County Durham and across into Teesdale. Kind regards Karen Alexander Farrans’ Stakeholder and Social Value Co-ordinator

By Karen Alexander

7 June, 2024 at 1:51PM

Good afternoon, We’ll be setting up temporary two-way traffic lights on Monday 10 June on the A688 to the north east of Barnard Castle, close to the junction with Town Pasture Lane. They will be in operation each day from 7am to 7pm and will be manually controlled to avoid traffic congestion. The traffic lights will enable us to carry out preparatory work on this section of the road, ahead of the installation of the new pipeline which will eventually cross the road at this point. The lights will keep road users, as well as our construction team safe while we’re doing this work and we expect to be finished by Friday 14 June 2024. We’ll be working as quickly and as safely as possible and thank people for their patience while this essential work is happening. If you’d like to speak to a member of our project team, you can telephone our customer contact centre on 0345 717 1100 or tweet us on @nwater_care and we will be very happy to help you. Kind regards Karen Alexander Farrans’ Stakeholder and Social Value Co-ordinator

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