United Utilities has now completed a £6 million tunnelling project to lay a new sewer since August when a huge sinkhole appeared after heavy rain, causing major damage to a key sewer.

The water company is currently carrying out further replacement highway drainage work and resurfacing on behalf of Manchester City Council to the Mancunian Way which will fully re-open on Wednesday 15 June.

The scale of the work, which makes this the biggest emergency sewer repair United Utilities has ever undertaken, has included:

• 10,400 tonnes of sandstone has been excavated
• The equivalent of 3,992 Olympic-sized swimming pools of sewage have been pumped past the roadworks
• 400 metres of temporary pipework has been laid
• 3 of the largest mobile pumps in the UK have been used – each one foot in diameter and capable of shifting 500 litres of wastewater a second, 24 hours a day

Councillor Kate Chappell, Executive Member for Environment for Manchester City Council, said:

“It's great news that we have got a date for the reopening. We'd like to thank the public for bearing with us during this challenging work.”

“As the damage affected a major sewer there was no alternative but for United Utilities to carry out this complex large-scale repair deep underground otherwise large parts of East Manchester would have been left without a functioning sewage system.”

"It's great news that United Utilities have carried out this difficult repair without disruption to water and sewage network and we appreciate all their hard work.”