Yorkshire Water and contract partners Galliford Try and Heffernan Utilities start this week on the first of 16 projects to replace water over 20km of water mains in Barnsley over the next two years.
Work began on Monday 7 April on site at the junction of Greenfoot Lane and Huddersfield Road, working towards Wilthorpe Avenue. This £494,205 investment to replace 1.8km (1854m) of mains will deliver a resilient and robust pipe network to provide reliable clean water supply, reduce leakage and lower the likelihood of bursts in the future.
Shaun Chapman, project manager, Yorkshire Water, said: “This is part of Yorkshire Water’s largest infrastructure investment to replace over 1,000km of water mains across the whole of the Yorkshire region in the next five years.
“We’ve identified 16 priority projects for Barnsley to complete in the next two years replacing 20.7km of existing pipes with mains, built to withstand high pressure and temperature variations, resulting in fewer bursts, lower leakage and a reduction in water supply disruptions for customers.”
Whilst large-scale replacement schemes will cause some disruption Yorkshire Water and its partners are working hard to provide as much notice as possible to customers, partner organisations, local authorities and highways about work happening in their area and proposed timescales.
To keep everyone safe we’ve worked with the Highways team to make Greenfoot Lane one way, with no entry from Huddersfield Road and access only form Wilthorpe Crescent. Traffic management and a signed diversion will be in place until this work is completed, whilst access for residents and schools will be maintained throughout.
The mains replacement programme is part of Yorkshire Water’s largest ever environmental investment of £8.3bn to improve infrastructure focussing on issues we know our customers really care about such as:
- £1.5 billion to reduce storm overflows into the region’s watercourses
- £360 million to prevent nutrient pollution in watercourses
- £327 million rolling out smart meters to help customers save water and reduce their bills
- £51 million to increase our asset resilience
- £98 million to install water quality monitors in rivers so we can identify and respond to pollution reports quicker
- £75 million for environmental protection and improvements
- £99 million to improve drinking water quality
