IRS Howden, Scotland

Project Details:

The primary driver for this project is to improve resilience of supply to Earlston and the wider network. As well as adding security to supply the scheme will also offer additional capacity and improve water quality to approx. 10,000 households and businesses.

This project required installation of 7km of 250mm HPPE clean water supply main from Eildon to Earlston, through the challenging Scottish Borders terrain.

In particular, this project had several difficult and unique elements encompassed within it;

•  Directional drill approx. 200m length through rock crossing 1minor and 1 major road, with a 30m difference in elevation between start and end points
• An environmentally sensitive isolated open cut was required across a local river to allow installation of the new pipe line. Research and consultation with SEPA helped develop a robust plan that proved very successful on implementation
•  A complex slip lining operation of 240m length was required through an existing pipe duct hung from the underside of a major road bridge crossing the River Tweed. This involved the installation of additional support bracketry to the existing duct under the bridge and allow slip lining of 180mm HPPE pipe through it.
• A 1000m section of haul road installation ran through a site of Archaeological interest (Scheduled Ancient Monument) and was carried out under an Archaeologist watching brief.

The new main was fully commissioned, achieving Water Into Supply April 2019 and handed over to the client 6 weeks ahead of expected target due to the innovative nature of the works and the dedication of our team.