Good afternoon,

I spent a very enjoyable morning supporting Year 11 pupils with a Speed Networking session at Whitworth Academy in Spennymoor on Tuesday 28 November.  The event had been organised by the Durham Works team, within Durham County Council, who promote links between schools and local employers.

Around 30 young people aged between 15-16 years old took part in the workshop, that gave them an insight into a whole range of job roles and careers they may not have previously considered. As well as talking more broadly about construction and civil engineering, I told them about my role involving comms and community engagement, which was a new concept to most of them!

Exercises like this are really important to not only promote who we are and what we are doing today, but also help ensure we create interest in the sector for future career choices and attract new, young talent into our organisations.

Kind regards

Karen Alexander

Farrans’ Community Business Partner

Good morning,

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

The first of these will take place from Monday 4th December to Sunday 10th December 2023 on Heighington Road leading to South Lodge, Selaby Lane, Gainford.

The second will take place from Monday 11^th December 2023 to Sunday 17^th December 2023 on Hulam Lane, leading to Selaby Lane, Gainford. 

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.

We’ll be placing roadside signage at the road closure points to clearly signpost the diversion routes.

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’ Community Business Partner

Good afternoon,

The first pipes have been laid in a new 57km water pipeline, which will support supplies to more than 200,000 people across the North East.

Northumbrian Water’s Project Pipeline: County Durham and the Tees Valley is a huge £155m investment in futureproofing the resilience and quality of water supply to customers.

Phase 1 of the project, which will connect Lartington Water Treatment Works in Upper Teesdale with the town of Gainford and across to Shildon, County Durham, is being constructed by Northumbrian Water’s partners, Farrans Construction.

The project will see the replacement of sections of the network that have served the area for more than 100 years, alongside new stretches of pipeline.

Pipelaying started from Whorley reservoir and the teams are working in the directions of Lartington and Shildon.

A second phase is currently being planned, with work scheduled to start in 2025, further connecting the pipeline on to Teesside at Long Newton.

James Dawes, Project Manager, said: “This is one of the biggest ever investments in customers’ water supplies here in the North East. Following years of planning and preparation, to ensure we can deliver this project in the best way possible, it’s fantastic to see the first pipes in the ground.

“There is still a long way to go, with Phase 1 scheduled to see us working into 2025, and Phase 2 for a further three years after that, but this is a huge milestone.

“We will continue to work with Farrans Construction and our other partners, with local stakeholders, communities and customers, as we progress across the south of County Durham and into Teesside, on the road to putting this new pipeline, that will deliver benefits for 200,000 customers, into service.”

Stephen Coates, Project Manager, Farrans Construction, said: “We have been on site for the last two months making final preparations ahead of the pipe work being laid so this is an exciting milestone for this project, our client and our team. The route of the pipeline will cross the River Tees and we are constructing a tunnel to carry the pipe 12m below the river bed, close to the villages of Lartington and Cotherstone in Teesdale.

“This is an important project which will provide resilience in the water supply for many years to come. We look forward to continuing to support the local community through our social value programme and already we have worked with social enterprises, charities and taken part in the Cotherstone 5km run.”

Kind regards

Karen Alexander

Farrans’ Community Business Partner

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 at Dent Gate Lane to the south of Marwood, northeast of the B6278. 

The work will take place from Wednesday 23^rd November 2023 to Thursday 30^th November 2023. 

With all construction projects, unexpected delays can sometimes occur, We had planned to close this road earlier in the month, however due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to postpone our work at this location.  We apologise for any inconvenience this change to our plans may have caused.

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.

We’ll be placing roadside signage at the road closure points to clearly signpost the diversion routes.

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’ Community Business Partner

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 on the B6274 north of Winston, immediately north of the A67, and to the east of Barnard Castle.

The road closure will be from Monday 20^th November 2023 to Wednesday 29^th November 2023. 

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.

We’ll be placing roadside signage at the road closure points to clearly signpost the diversion routes.

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’ Community Business Partner

Good morning,

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 to the south of Marwood, northeast of the B6278. 

The road closure will be at Dent Gate Lane from Monday 6^th November 2023 to Friday 19^th November 2023. 

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.

We’ll be placing roadside signage at the road closure points two weeks ahead of these closure dates, to clearly signpost the diversion routes.

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’ Community Business Partner

Good morning,

Farrans is working on behalf of Northumbrian Water to construct a new 34km pipeline across West Durham and Teesdale, to upgrade and improve our water infrastructure for decades to come.  As part of this huge task, we have to create a tunnel under the Tees to carry the pipeline across the river.  We’re currently sinking two deep shafts on either side of the river at Cotherstone and we’ll be using a Tunnel Boring Machine to drill the tunnel to link the two shafts.

It’s a tradition in the construction sector that such machines are ‘named’ at the start of a job like this, and we’d like to invite someone in the local community to pick a name for our machine.  The person whose name is chosen will be invited to the ceremony on our site when the machine is lowered into position, with its name emblazoned across it.  This is a great way to see a really exciting construction project at first hand and is bound to be a very inspiring experience! We’ll be inviting representatives from the local media, so this would also be a great opportunity to raise the profile of your school too.

To enter the competition, please use the QR code on the poster to access the entry form. Closing date is 18 November 2023. We’re also taking this opportunity to make a donation to a local charity. In the entry form, we’re asking for you to select one of four charities. The charity which receives the most votes will receive the donation.

We look forward to receiving your entry.

Kind regards

Karen Alexander

Farrans’ Community Business Partner

Good morning,

I had a fantastic day on Wednesday, 11 October delivering STEM workshops to a cluster of schools in West Durham. The event was arranged by the careers facilitators at the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), as part of their role in the national Primary Pilot, “Start small, dream big”.

Pupils in Years 5 and 6 from local primary schools, Copeland Road, Ramshaw and Montalbo, travelled to Cockfield Primary, who kindly hosted the event. They took part in exercises to design and build water filters, in the exciting context of surviving a ‘Zombie Apocalypse’. In doing so, they also learned about the work Farrans is doing for NWG in delivering Project Pipeline, as well as the importance of transferable skills and the diversity of roles within the construction and civil engineering sector.

The enthusiasm and creativity in the room was amazing and the North East certainly has a wealth of potential skills to tap into to sustain our future!

Kind regards

Karen Alexander

Farrans’ Community Business Partner

Good morning,

On Monday night, I’m delighted to say Farrans Construction picked up the Responsible Procurement award at Northumbrian Water’s GEM Awards, in recognition of the social value we’ve been delivering on the Project Pipeline: County Durham and Tees Value contract. Our Project Manager, Steve Coates and I attended the ceremony and were over the moon to be selected as winners from the shortlist.  The photo below shows Steve (left) and I being presented with the award by NWG's Finance Director Matt Williams (right).

Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) has a clear vision to be the national leader in the provision of sustainable water and wastewater services and they acknowledge it’s vital that they work with suppliers who share their drive for excellence while delivering outstanding customer service. They want to recognise the amazing contribution that supply partners play in helping NWG to achieve its vision and celebrate those that are ‘Going the Extra Mile’.

In County Durham and Tees Valley, Farrans is improving the underground network of water pipes, constructing a new 24km, 800mm diameter pipeline between Lartington Water Treatment Works and Shildon via Whorley Hill. The pipeline will cross underneath the River Tees to a depth of 50 metres. Around 200,000 customers will benefit from this work.

Kind regards

Karen Alexander

Farrans’ Community Business Partner

Good afternoon,

We’re continuing with our preparation work along the pipeline route, and we’ve arranged a short-term road closure to the east of Barnard Caste.

The road closure will be at Town Pasture Lane from Monday 23^rd October 2023 to Monday 3^rd November 2023

With all construction projects, unexpected delays can sometimes occur.  The closures will not impact traffic on the A67 or on the A688.  

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.

We’ll be placing roadside signage at the road closure points two weeks ahead of these closure dates, to clearly signpost the diversion routes.

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’ Community Business Partner