Water quality in a County Durham burn will be protected and sewerage services futureproofed, thanks to an £11m project that has been carried out by Northumbrian Water.
The investment has included the construction of a new 6km pipeline, as well as upgrades to the company’s treatment works and related infrastructure in the Plawsworth, Pity Me and Brasside area.
Streamlining and adding flexibility to the area’s sewage treatment provision, the work included constructing two new pumping stations at the company’s sewage treatment works (STWs) at Plawsworth and Pity Me.
Completion of the work, which took around 18 months, means the treated water, which is returned to the environment, will no longer go into Blackdene Burn, but instead go into the larger waters of the Wear at Brasside. This will improve water quality and protect the environment along a 2km stretch of the Blackdene Burn.
The project also paves the way for further future investment in upgrades at Brasside STW and the eventual abandonment of the STWs at Plawsworth and Pity Me. This will ultimately add capacity and efficiency across the network, ready to effectively handle larger volumes of wastewater generated by population growth in the area.
To construct the pipeline, Northumbrian Water and its partners, Esh-Stantec, worked closely with specialist engineers and organisations including Network Rail, to ensure major travel routes weren’t disrupted. This included drilling beneath the A167 and the East Coast Main Line, so that traffic and trains were able to keep running freely.
Paul Davison, Northumbrian Water’s Project Manager, said: “These upgrades to our network and treatment work sites deliver environmental protection to the Blackdene Burn and futureproofed our wastewater services in the area. They have also paved the way for the future investment that will further protect the environment through efficiencies and increased capacity that will cater for local population growth and the increase in wastewater that this will bring.”
Scott Jackson, Esh-Stantec’s Contracts Manager, said: “Together with Northumbrian Water, we navigated a lot of complexities to successfully bring the project to completion and deliver improvements to the network and local environment.
“Alongside this, we worked within the local community to deliver a range of social value initiatives which involved providing two placements for T Level students, volunteering at Durham Food Bank, as well as engaging with more than 230 students to deliver STEM-based learning and an insight into how the curriculum links to construction careers.”