Yorkshire Water starts phase one of a project to renew 43km of water mains across Sheffield over the next two years, beginning with a £148k investment in the Helmton Drive/Cobnar Avenue (S8) area of the city.
On Monday 7 April, contract partner Sapphire Utilities Solutions (SUS) will begin the project to replace 388m of old pipes to improve reliability of drinking water supply, reduce leakage and prevent mains bursts in the area. The work is part of Yorkshire Water’s £406m investment to replace more than 1,000km of water mains across the region over the next five years.
Shaun Chapman, project manager at Yorkshire Water, said: “This is the beginning of our largest network investment for over 20 years to upgrade our infrastructure and deliver to our customers the service that they rightly expect.
“Replacing water mains in Sheffield will help to provide a resilient and robust network and reduce the likelihood of future bursts or loss of supply to customers. It’s part of Yorkshire Water’s largest ever investment over the next five years, which will deliver a range of benefits that right for our customers and right for the environment.”
There are 18 mains renewal schemes planned for Sheffield over the next two years alone, resulting in over 43km (43,360m) of robust, resilient pipework. Such large-scale schemes will cause some disruptions along the way, but the team is determined to keep this to a minimum by working with local authorities and other utility providers to collaborate with them to renew mains and other services in one go.
Customers will be contacted ahead of time to let them know of mains replacement work going on in their local area. Yorkshire Water is working local authorities and highways teams to ensure the network renewal is completed as safely as possible with traffic management in place to advise of diversions or alternative routes.
Work starts on site on Monday 7 April on Helmton Drive and finish at the junction of Olivet Road, a signed diversion will be in place throughout, resident access will be maintained during the temporary closure. On completion, work will move towards Helmton Road and customers will be kept up to date of when this is due to happen.
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
