A £2 million investment to enhance the quality of water supplying the Wiltshire town of Devizes has been wrapped up more than a month ahead of schedule.
Wessex Water teams completed the substantive replacement of more than two kilometres of ageing cast-iron water mains with new plastic pipes near the town centre earlier this month and have been concluding their work with minor finishing touches, including cross-connections.
In addition, 250 service pipes – equating to more than a kilometre – were also replaced, with the project designed to ensure improved quality and a more reliable supply for years to come.
Further stages of the work, including in Wine Street and High Street, that were due to bring the scheme to a close by mid-March have now been shelved after the impact and success of the completed refurbishment was reviewed.
The extensive refit throughout the centre of the market town began in the summer of 2023, as part of what originally planned as a four-phase project to remove and replace degrading pipes that were causing issues such as discoloured water and poor pressure.
The opening spell of work continued until February 2024 and took in Sheep Street, Maryport Street, Monday Market Street and Sidmouth Street, Morris Lane, Bridewell Street, Long Street, Hare & Hounds Street and Hilworth Road.
A further programme – combining the original phases two and three – got under way in June of last year, focusing on the centre of the town, including St Johns Street, St Johns Court, High Street, Wine Street, The Market Place, Station Road and Castle Lane before being brought to a close this month.
During the course of the project, Wessex Water worked extensively with local customers, sending thousands of letters about the scheme, holding more than 100 meetings with businesses and bodies such as the town council and hosting community drop-in sessions , including on market days in Devizes, to answer questions about the work.
Wessex Water’s Director of Engineering and Asset Management Eddie Rant said: “Our team have been working hard since last summer to complete this latest part of the refurbishment, which will ensure improved water quality and a more reliable supply in Devizes in future.
“This has been complex work, involving tricky excavations and pipe-laying within areas that are often busy with both traffic and pedestrians but, thanks to their efforts, we’ve now been able to review the scheme’s progress and conclude that the refit carried out so far will achieve the objectives of improving water supply in the town.
“That means they don’t need to continue into some of the remaining sections planned, with only minor non-intrusive connection work still required.
“We’ll be continually reviewing water quality across our network but, as it stands, our plans for a further final phase of this improvement in Devizes have been deferred indefinitely.
“Both our project and site teams have done a superb job to try and get this work done sensitively to the local community, working closely with local customers and businesses to balance the need to complete this essential main replacement with our determination to minimise disruption as much as possible.
“And we would also like to thank the people, businesses, road users, the town council and other stakeholders throughout the town for their understanding and continuing to work co-operatively with us.’’
Wessex Water currently spends more than £8 million a year on replacing ageing water mains which, as well as being prone to leaks, can cause quality issues such as discoloured water and poor pressure for customers
