Project Pipeline: County Durham and Tees Valley

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