Northumbrian Water has used innovative underground tunnelling to allow a new water pipe to be laid without digging a trench in order to to protect an historic railway heritage site.
Thewater company is progressing work to lay pipes that will connect a new £56 million underground reservoir with its existing water network, including the use of innovative underground tunnelling to allow a new water pipe to be laid without digging a trench through the heritage site.
Northumbrian Water’s new reservoir is being built at nearby Springwell Village. It will provide water storage for around 50,000 households in the area and support supplies for a further 200,000 homes in South Tyneside and Wearside by increasing the resilience of the water network.
The new 800mm pipe passes beneath the Bowes Railway Company Hauler site which forms part of the wider Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM), The pipe has been installed using a tunnelling boring shaft technique which removed the need to excavate a trench through the railway line of the near-200-year-old site.
The tunnelling has involved creating shafts at either side of the railway, then driving the tunnelling rig between the two excavations and passing a pipe through. Elsewhere the technique has been used to remove the impact of pipelaying from busy road networks and even rivers, with the water company currently using the method to cross the Tees with a new pipeline in County Durham.
A special tunnel-boring machine was brought in to carry out the work, which s being carried out with the company’s partner, Mott MacDonald Bentley.
Northumbrian Water’s Project Manager, Richard Johnston said:
“As with many projects where we are creating a new water pipeline, there are points where the route needs to cross busy roads or other areas that provide a challenge and require sensitivity. A site with the significance of the Bowes Incline Railway SAM is no different, so we wanted to approach it with extreme delicacy and tunnelling provided the opportunity to make the crossing without disturbance to this wonderful piece of heritage.”
Originally a colliery railway carrying coal from the pits of North East Durham to the Tyne at Jarrow, the railway was opened in 1826; the earliest section was designed by rail pioneer George Stephenson.
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