News
Severn Trent to invest millions in Newark’s sewers
15 February 2016
We attended the Newark Traffic Summit meeting last Friday (12 February) to share our plans for a multi-million pound investment in a major new scheme that will protect homes in Newark from sewer flooding.
Plans are still in the early stages and the work won’t start until later this year, but it’s expected that more than 20 kilometres of old pipes will be replaced with new, larger ones, over the next three years.
Tim Sawyer from Severn Trent Water, explains: “Sewer flooding is one of the worst things that can happen to our customers, and we know that there are around 400 properties in Newark that are at risk of sewer flooding, so we’re making this investment in to help prevent it. The sewer pipes in the town are just not big enough and, with the changing weather patterns, we’re seeing more rain than we’re used to and the original pipes are now too small to cope with it. They’ve also grown old – some are more than 100 years old - and it’s important we act now to make sure they’ll be in good working order for years to come to prevent any issues in the future.
"This is a big project for us – it’s the largest investment we’ve made in a project to replace sewers in one area for many years - and it’s important that we get it right for our customers. So at the moment we’re carrying out extensive investigations and surveys in the local area, as well as working closely with the highways department at Nottinghamshire County Council. This should help us to plan the work efficiently with as little disruption as possible.”
We'll be using specialised tunnelling machinery to replace the sewers. The tunnels, which are large enough to drive a transit van through them, will reduce the number of roads it has to dig up to install the sewers.
Tim explains: “By tunnelling underground we will reduce the impact our work has on local residents, businesses and traffic. We’re in the process of appointing a contract partner to carry out the work on our behalf, and as soon as we have them in place we’ll be able to finalise our plans. We understand that a project of this size is likely to cause quite a bit of disruption for the people of Newark, but we want to assure everyone that we will be doing all we can to reduce the impact our work has on the local community."
While at the meeting, we also confirmed that we would be replacing water pipes while working in the area. Tim added: “Once we have more information, we’ll set up a series of drop in sessions for people to learn more about the work, and hopefully everyone will see that any negative side effects should be outweighed by the long-term benefits of preventing sewer flooding.”