News

Severn Trent’s £60 million project in Newark is sinking to new depths this week as ‘The Mount Mole’ gets ready to roll.

The state-of-the-art remote controlled tunnelling machine is ready and in place to start digging below the streets of the Nottinghamshire town, making room for bigger and better sewer pipes to be built.

Pupils from Mount Primary School named the tunnelling machine ‘The Mount Mole’ and were there to see the machine lowered into the specially constructed shaft on their school field.

Tim Sawyer from Severn Trent said: “This is a really exciting time for Newark, as this tunnelling will form the groundwork for the new, larger sewer pipes that will protect hundreds of homes and businesses from flooding.

“The amazing thing about this way of working is that, once the machine sets off, it’ll be travelling underground, all without anyone realising it’s there, meaning minimal disruption to the town.”

At a cost of £60m Severn Trent’s project in Newark is one of the company’s biggest ever investments to in the East Midlands, with the work due to be completed in 2020 and being carried out by contractor BNM Alliance.

The Mount Mole is 1.5 metres in diameter and will be tunnelling under Queens Road for six weeks before resurfacing at the bottom of Sleaford Road.

“This tunnelling comes in advance of the much larger tunnel that we’ll be creating in July that will be big enough for a transit van to drive down,” said Tim. “That tunnel will run all the way from Crankley Point in the north of town to the southern end of Millgate.

”The completion of this huge investment in Newark will see more than 400 homes and businesses protected from sewer flooding in the town.Tim adds “We want to thank everyone in Newark for their continued patience as we work, we will always do what we can to cause as little disruption as possible and hope that everyone will start to see the benefits of this exciting work soon.”