Northumbrian Water is completing work on a renewal of its water supply pipes in Stokesley, North Yorkshire to protect and improve customers’ supplies.
The company is working with its partner, United Living, to install 950 metres of new pipes – more than the length of nine football pitches, replacing and improving upon the 1,300 metres of water mains that had previously served the area around the Meadowfield estate.
As local population grew over the last century, new pipes were added to the network between the 1920s and the 1970s, leading to a complex system that was difficult to manage when problems, such as bursts, arose.
The old pipes were also made from different materials and were of greatly varying age, becoming more prone to problems, which ultimately impacted customers’ supplies and caused damage when bursts happened.
The new pipes represent £375,000 of investment in a simplified system that is more resilient and easier to manage. This means there is a lower likelihood of bursts and a greater ability to protect customers’ supplies when they do happen.
Monisha Gower, Assets Director at Northumbrian Water, said: “We’ve invested in the installation of new water mains in the Meadowfield estate of Stokesley to help protect water supplies for customers and make sure the local network is fit for the future. The complexity of the old network, which was expanded bit by bit over the course of 50-plus years, made it really difficult to manage when we had bursts in the area, because we couldn’t simply re-route water to keep people’s supplies going.
“This work not only reduces the chances of bursts, it makes moving water around the area when we need to much simpler, because we have been able to plan and deliver the right system for our customers in the area.
“Our team, including our partners at United Living, have worked really closely with customers to keep them informed, carried out a lot of up-front testing to make sure things would work as they should, and we are really grateful to everyone involved for making this happen.”