Yorkshire Water starts work on mains renewal

Yorkshire Water has kicked off its project to renew 43km of water mains across Sheffield over the next two years.

Work has started with a £148,000 investment in the Helmton Drive/Cobnar Avenue area of the city.

Contract partner Sapphire Utilities Solutions (SUS) has started 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.”

The mains replacement programme is part of Yorkshire Water’s largest ever environmental investment of £8.3bn to improve infrastructure and includes £1.5bn to reduce storm overflows into the region’s watercourses, £360m to prevent nutrient pollution in watercourses and £327m rolling out smart meters to help customers save water and reduce their bills.