Scottish Water has completed a key piece of engineering on a £120m water mains improvement project by diverting a river in East Ayrshire to enable the pipe to be installed.

Contractors working for the utility company on the project, which will benefit more than 200,000 people and businesses in much of Ayrshire and parts of East Renfrewshire, last week diverted a short stretch of the Craufurdland Water near Kilmarnock to enable them to install the water main beneath the river bed.

The operation was carried out by Caledonia Water Alliance (CWA) to enable a 60 metre stretch of the permanent riverbed in countryside near Craufurdland Castle to run dry before they could excavate and install the 900mm steel pipeline in dry conditions while allowing the river, and its inhabitants, to continue flowing downstream relatively uninterrupted.

The work, which took about five days to complete, involved the excavation of a temporary channel which needed to be wide enough and deep enough to carry the volume of water that naturally flows along the watercourse.

The channel was lined with a plastic sheeting to prevent the banks scouring away and to prevent any siltation of the downstream watercourse.

Straw bales and one tonne builders’ bulk bags filled with gravel acted as a barrier to redirect the watercourse in to the new channel that was excavated so that the water flow passed around the working area.

The watercourse was identified as significant and well stocked by the Ayrshire Rivers Trust (ART) who were engaged by Scottish Water to carry out ecology screening of watercourses where the pipeline crosses through them.

Scottish Water is improving the water supply network by installing more than 30 miles of new water mains to connect the system in Ayrshire with the Greater Glasgow area’s network.

Customers across a large part of Ayrshire currently receive their water from a single source, the Bradan Water Treatment Works, south of Straiton in South Ayrshire.

The water is supplied to customers’ taps via a 34-mile-long trunk water main installed about 50 years ago which runs from the Bradan Water Treatment Works to a point north of Irvine.

The construction of the new strategic water main, which is expected to be completed in 2020, will connect the Bradan water supply network to the network served by the Milngavie and Balmore water treatment works, north of Glasgow.

When complete, the investment will enable Scottish Water to transfer water from Glasgow to Ayrshire, and vice-versa, if required.