Good afternoon

The Farrans team has been hard at work since 13 May setting up our site compound just to the east of Barnard Castle on the A67, following receipt of planning approval.  We’ll be based here for the next two years while we’re delivering Phase 1 of Project Pipeline.

The compound will include our site offices, as well as welfare units, storage areas and parking facilities. We’ll be installing fencing and gates, as well as CCTV for site security and we expect to have this work completed by mid-June 2023.

With safety in mind, we’ll be erecting signage on the roadside to alert motorists to the new site entrance and the possibility of traffic driving into and out of the site.

Many thanks,

Karen Alexander

Farrans’ Community Business Partner

Good afternoon

In a previous update, I explained that we 've been putting up fences along the entire length of the pipeline route.  If you’re familiar with this part of the county, you’ll be aware that our route crosses a number of public rights of way and is very popular with walkers and their dogs.

We’re taking care to ensure that all public rights of way in the West Durham area continue to remain open and accessible for walkers. We’re constructing stiles at the points where our fencing cuts across these footpaths. We’re also incorporating a number of dog crossing points along the route, because we appreciate the difficulty people might face when trying to lift a large dog across a stile.

I hope you and your four-legged friends continue to enjoy your walks.

Many thanks,

Karen Alexander

Farrans’ Community Business Partner

Good afternoon,

In preparation for our work to tunnel under the River Tees near Cotherstone, we’ve started to build a temporary road (shown by the yellow line on the map below).  The road will run from the Lartington water treatment works to the point on the River Tees where we will be tunnelling to create the crossing for the new pipeline. The temporary road is necessary because we need to transport large pieces of plant and machinery to the tunnelling site.

We’ll be bringing stone from a local quarry at Bowes, around six miles away, to create the temporary road surface. Initially, we’re planning to move around 300 tonnes of stone per day for around two weeks starting on Monday 3 April 2023.  This equates to around 10-15 lorry loads per day. After this, the number of lorries will reduce to around 5-10 per day for a further week.

Towards the end of April, we’ll be building temporary office accommodation near the site of the tunnelling works, so you’ll see some portable cabins and other items of plant and materials being transported. You may see 2 or 3 lorries per day until this site near Cotherstone has been set up. The temporary site location is shown by the blue arrow on the map below.

Please be assured our drivers will take care on the small, rural roads and will drive safety and with courtesy to other road users.

Many thanks,

Karen Alexander

Farrans Community Business Partner

Good afternoon

We’re delighted to host a student from Newcastle University, Matthew Weatherald, on a two-week work experience placement on the Tees pipeline. Matthew is 22 and in his fourth and final year of a Civil Engineering degree. His chosen specialism in Year 4 is environmental engineering, in particular how storms create debris and blockages in water supplies.

Matthew’s from a family of dairy farmers, so he’s no stranger to early morning starts and hard work. Having decided a farmer’s life is not for him, he initially considered a career in the army, but has now settled on Civil Engineering. He first met Farrans at a university careers fair which we attended in October 2022. When he subsequently applied for a placement, we were happy to oblige. He’ll be spending a lot of time outside, helping in the preparation stages of securing the pipeline route, as well as looking at construction designs and programme plans with our office-based team.

We love seeing enthusiastic young people like Matthew coming into the construction and civil engineering sector and it gives us real pleasure to help them take these important early steps in their career.

Karen Alexander

Farrans Community Business Partner

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Good morning

I’d like to give you an update about the work we’ve been doing to prepare the pipeline route. 

We’ve been removing vegetation along the entire route, from Lartington in the south, up to Shildon in the north, via Whorley, ahead of starting to lay the pipes.

We’ve also been busy erecting fencing, as you can see in the photograph below. This is important to prevent any people or livestock from accessing the construction area and keep everyone safe. We expect to finish the fencing in June 2023.

Many thanks,

Karen Alexander

Farrans’ Community Business Partner

Good afternoon,

I’m going to be engaging with the local community at a range of different events over the next two years while we are constructing Phase 1 of the new pipeline. The first of these is a careers fair which is being held at Bishop Auckland College on 8 March.

I’ll be there from 10am to 2.30pm with another two colleagues from our team, Martin Hanna and Adam Swinney. We’ll be able to give you an insight into careers in civil engineering, as well as talk about opportunities that exist for jobs, training and work experience on the Tees Pipeline scheme, working with Farrans and our supply chain partners from now until summer 2025.

Please come along and say hello!

Many thanks,

Karen Alexander

Farrans’ Community Business Partner

Good afternoon,

If you brave these cold January days and go for a walk in our beautiful County Durham countryside, you might spot some flags and markers along fencing. Members of the Farrans team have been marking out the route of the pipeline from Lartington to Shildon, via Whorley, ahead of construction work starting. In some areas we have placed flags on top of fence posts, and in others we have marked the fence posts themselves, as strong winds were making it difficult to secure the flags.

I’ve added a couple of photographs to show you the flags and markers. The task also gave our team an introduction to the lovely local landscapes!

Please feel free to comment or ask any questions you may have.

Many thanks,

Karen Alexander

Farrans’ Community Business Partner

Good Afternoon, 

Farrans Construction has been selected by Northumbrian Water to deliver Phase 1 of the County Durham and Tees Valley Project Pipeline.

Speaking on behalf of Farrans, Neil Barnes, Regional Director for England Civils, said, “We are delighted to have the opportunity to lead on this project which will have an integral role in providing resilience in the water supply in England. This project will utilise our in-house design capabilities and further cement our expertise in the water sector. We are currently on site with major water projects across the UK and Ireland with clients including Anglian Water, Affinity Water, Northern Ireland Water and Irish Water and we have an already established collaborative relationship and a successful history of delivery with Northumbrian Water.”

We’ll provide regular updates on this portal throughout the course of the project, not only on the construction of the pipeline, but also on our community engagement activity which we take pride in delivering. We always place the needs of local people at the heart of our operations to ensure we leave a positive lasting impact. In my role as Farrans' Community Business Partner, I will take the lead in ensuring the social value of the schme is realalised and I am looking forward to working with local groups to support your key community priorities.

Please feel free to comment should you have any questions. 

Many thanks, 

Karen Alexander

Farrans' Community Business Partner

Hello

I’m Amanda Hunt, Lead Customer Care Manager, at Northumbrian Water. I’m working closely with our Project Manager, James Dawes, and our supply partners during our essential work in Lartington.

I just wanted to take the opportunity to introduce myself to you after James’s initial introduction, posted here yesterday.

As you will be aware, our work in Lartington is part of a £155 million investment project to improve the resilience of supply links between our reservoirs and treatment works in Teesdale, and parts of central and southern County Durham. James described our proposals in more detail in his post yesterday and I hope you will find this useful.

We will post regular updates here to keep you informed on progress once our works are underway. Please feel free to register on the portal and receive updates as the work progresses.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch, either via this portal or by contacting our Customer Centre by telephone on 0345 717 1100. Please ask to speak with a member of the project team.

We do of course continue to appreciate your patience and understanding whilst we carry out this essential work.

Kind regards

Amanda Hunt

Lead Customer Care Manager

Hello all,

Welcome to the portal for Project Pipeline: County Durham and Tees Valley - Phase 1.

This scheme is a £155 million investment to improve the resilience of supply links between Northumbrian Water's 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 Service Reservoir and Shildon Service Reservoir. Phase 1 will also include conditioning works north of Shildon, allowing our new assets to link to existing infrastructure in Spennymoor. The next phase – Phase 2 – will not start construction until 2025 and will construct a new pipeline between Whorley Hill Service Reservoir and Long Newton Service Reservoir. I have attached a route plan to aid in your understanding of the scheme geography. 

Phase 1, which will be carried out by our partner, Farrans (who will introduce themselves on here shortly), will continue until around summer 2025. On our behalf, Farrans are initially pegging out the pipeline route and working area, setting up the required site compounds and materials storage areas in the vicinity of the proposed pipeline route. At the same time, they will also begin the process of preparing the route for the main construction works to commence, including fencing and site clearing activities. 

Please be assured that we are working closely with Farrans to minimise our impact on the local community. Typical working hours will be between 07:30 and 18:00 Monday to Friday and between 08:00 to 14:00 on Saturday. 

As the work progresses we will be posting updates to this site to keep you informed about the project's progress and ongoing or upcoming work. Please feel free to get in touch with either myself or our Customer Centre by telephone on 0345 717 1100. Please ask to speak with a member of the project team should you have any concerns or questions. We are more than happy to help. 

Many thanks, 

James Dawes 

Lead Project Manager