Turn on any tap in Birmingham and the water that flows from it will have been collected not in the Midlands, but over 70 miles away in Powys, Wales.

Over 320 million litres of water is transported daily by gravity to the UK’s second city via an impressive piece of Victorian engineering, the Elan Valley Aqueduct. Opened in 1904, most of the structure is in remarkably good condition for its age.

However, in three locations – Bleddfa, Nantmel and Knighton – sections of the aqueduct need to be replaced and Severn Trent, the utility company responsible for providing Birmingham’s water, with the help of Fisher German, will bore new tunnels. These will bypass the sections that have maintenance issues so that they can eventually be taken out of use.

The tunneling works at the first site, Bleddfa, have now been completed and the new section of tunnel is in use.  The tunnel boring machine has been refurbished and is due to start tunneling at Nantmel in May.  Works to prepare the final site at Knighton, will commence shortly.

As part of a wider ongoing contract to provide specialist consultancy services to the water company, we have been closely involved in these bypasses. The first stage involved bringing in our planning team, who worked closely with the local planning authority to ensure that these works could be undertaken by Severn Trent using their permitted development rights.

We then worked with Severn Trent to manage issues relating to the land required to launch and recover the tunnel boring machine; this involved liaising with affected landowners and occupiers throughout the project, the service of land entry notices, agreeing accommodation works, and assessing compensation.
Work started on the first bypass in spring 2016 and is expected to finish by the end of 2018.

Contact Evan Hughes if you need further assistance regarding this article.  evan.hughes@fishergerman.co.uk