Victorian to modern

22/12/2005

Abundant supplies of water are being maintained to hundreds of thousands of people in the North East through an essential upgrade underway to an historic aqueduct.

Improvement work, costing half a million pounds, is being carried out by Northumbrian Water to part of a 40 kilometre Victorian-aged aqueduct in Matfen, Northumberland.

The aqueduct, a series of pipes, tunnels and open channels, carries 19 million gallons of raw water every day from Catcleugh reservoir, near the Scottish border, to Whittle Dene and Horsley treatment works in the Tyne Valley.

Work to upgrade Ryal tunnel, which forms part of the aqueduct, will be complete in January 2006.

Norman Blacklock, Northumbrian Water’s Project Manager, said: “Northumbrian Water is investing millions of pounds to improve its assets.  The work to Ryal tunnel is part of this investment.

“The upgrade work to a 240 metre section of the 4.5 kilometre tunnel, diameter of 1.5 metres, involves the construction of two access shafts.

“The tunnel is currently lined with brick and natural rock and will be relined with pre-cast concrete sections to form a solid base.

“Three layers of stainless steel mesh reinforcement will then be fixed to the walls of the tunnel and sprayed with concrete.  Once this has hardened a further layer of thin mesh will be fixed and a top finishing coat of concrete applied.”

All construction traffic will not go through Matfen village, access will be from the private quarry road only.

For further information please contact Joanne Dye on 0191 301 6733.

Notes
Picture caption:  Essential improvement work being inspected by Michael Grange, Project Acceptance Engineer from Northumbrian Water, to the Victorian-aged aqueduct.