The situation
Across the South West our sewerage system is showing its age and is in need of upgrading. This is especially true of a rising main in Widemouth Bay, Bude. Following a number of bursts in the past few years, it's reached the end of it's working life and needs replacing.
In order to minimise future disruption to locals, we're changing the route of this rising main, and installing a brand new pipe.
The plan for Widemouth Bay
The current rising main runs underneath gardens, a solar farm and the transatlantic cables. Therefore, we’re changing the route of the rising main, so that it lies beneath the roads and fields instead.
This will minimise the impact of any future maintenance, and is also part of our wider plans to make our network more efficient. Subject to further investigations following this replacement, we're planning to decommission the pumping station at Helscott, which will mean we can use less energy getting sewage to the treatment works in Helebridge.
We will decommission the old rising main once the new one is connected.
We plan to complete the rising main replacement by July 2024.
Road closures
To keep our teams and locals safe during this work, it’s essential for us to close the roads around our working area. This means there will be two road closures:
- Marine Drive: 8 January, 6 weeks – road closure
- Madeira Drive: 12 February, 5 weeks – road closure
What you'll see
For the majority of this project, we'll be using open cut excavation - which means we'll dig a trench down to the pipe, install that section, and then reinstate the area. This type of work is noisy and produces dust. We'll be using pneumatic drills, diggers and other noisy equipment to complete the installation.
1. Preparation
- Set up traffic management and safety barriers
- Survey the site and mark up the existing services – we do not want to damage other utilities!
2. Digging down
We excavate down to the correct depth, creating a trench for the new pipe. We use diggers for most of the work, but areas around other services have to be dug out by hand to avoid damage.
3. Installing the pipe
- The new pipe is installed on suitable bedding to protect it
- It is then pressure tested to ensure it doesn't leak
4. Introduce flow into sewer
The new pipe is connected into the network and the sewer is brought into service.
5. Restore the working area
We backfill the trench with stone, restore the road surface and repaint any road markings before clearing the site and then the road is opened again as normal.