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

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 13^th September 2024 to 6am on Monday 16^th September 2024.

For a week on either side of this, the road will be kept open, but with three-way traffic lights between Monday 9^th September 2024 and Friday 20^th 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

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

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

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 15^th 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

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

Good afternoon,

To the communities and businesses around Cotherstone and Lartington who use the B6277, we would like to extend our sincere thanks for your patience and understanding during the recent road closure. This was necessary for the construction of the new pipeline through County Durham and Tees Valley.

Our teams worked hard to ensure we completed the task within the planned time scale and we were able to re-open the road on the evening of Wednesday 5th June as intended.

Once again, our apologies for the inconvenience this closure may have caused and thank you for your patience while this essential work was taking place.

Kind regards

Karen Alexander

Farrans’ Stakeholder and Social Value Co-ordinator

Good afternoon,

We’re continuing with our preparation work along the pipeline route, and we’ve arranged a short-term road closure in conjunction with Durham County Council in the coming weeks.

The road closure will be on B6277 north of the junction to Naby Lane from Tuesday 28^th May 2024 to Wednesday 5^th June 2024. 

An official diversion has been agreed and signage has been placed on the roadside to direct drivers.  An illustration of the diversion route is given below, with the closure point marked with a ‘red star’.  It is important that large vehicles follow this official diversion route, as other smaller lanes around the villages of Lartington and Cotherstone that may also potentially avoid the closure, are not suitable for HGVs.

There will be an impact on public transport as a result of the road closure.  Some bus stops in Lartington and Cotherstone will be without a normal service for the number 95 and 96 Weardale buses for the duration of the B6277 road closure, starting from Tuesday 28 May. 

To minimise any inconvenience for the local community we have arranged for a temporary shuttle bus service to operate during the period of the closure.  Durham County Council will put notices on all affected bus stops informing passengers of the temporary arrangement, this will happen the week before the closure. 

Weardale Travel will also put notices and posters on the number 95 and 96 buses and advertise this change on their Facebook page and website: Weardale Travel (weardale-travel.co.uk).  We are advising passengers to check this information prior to travel. 

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.  We’ll be working as quickly and as safely as possible and thank people for their patience while this essential work is happening. 

Typical working hours will be between 7.30am – 6.00pm, Monday to Friday and 8.00am – 2.00pm on a Saturday.

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

Good morning,

We’ll be installing temporary two-way traffic lights on the A67 Darlington Road, on Tuesday 28 May until 9 June 2024. This is so we can carry out realignment work for the access road to our site compound with the A67, to improve safety for vehicles driving into and out of our site.

The location is approximately two miles to the east of Barnard Castle, as indicated by the ‘red star’ on the image below.

We’ll be installing two-way traffic lights to keep road users, as well as our construction team safe while the construction work is taking place. 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

It was great to welcome members of the Great North Air Ambulance Service to our Project Pipeline: County Durham and Tees Valley site last month.

Farrans and tunnelling specialists Joseph Gallagher Group donated £1,000 to the Great North Air Ambulance to support their vital services.

The donation was handed over at a special event on 3 April to mark the arrival of a specialist tunnel boring machine, close to the east bank of the Tees, which will create the pathway for the pipes to pass beneath the river.

The project will see the new pipeline created, connecting Lartington Water Treatment Works, in Teesdale, with customers across the south of County Durham and across into Teesside.

Best regards

Karen Alexander

Farrans' Stakeholder and Social Value Co-ordinator