Our Services

Maintaining the Thirlmere Aqueduct

Between August and November 2006 we will be carrying out the first part of a £23 million maintenance programme on the Thirlmere Aqueduct, which transports water from the Lake District to our customers in Manchester and the surrounding area. A number of repairs will be taking place along its entire length, following on from inspections that were carried out in 2005. And in addition, a further 56km of the aqueduct will be inspected to identify any repairs that may be necessary in the future.

What we are doing

Although we have undertaken maintenance of the aqueduct over the years, its entire length has never been inspected and refurbished on this scale before.  In order to inspect the condition of the aqueduct and undertake any repairs it needs to be taken temporarily out of service.

The first part of the work will be carried out during the four weeks of October 2006, with further work planned for subsequent years.

While the aqueduct is out of service an inspection team will assess its condition and identify any need for further maintenance work.  Engineers will be gaining entry to the aqueduct at around 70 sites along is 134km length. 

At the same time we will be refurbishing six conduit bridges.  Engineers will be working inside the bridge sections to re-line the aqueduct, by manually fixing a plastic membrane to the inside of the tunnel.  This will help to minimise the amount of water currently lost through cracks in the original structure.

While the aqueduct is empty we will also be taking the opportunity to do some repairs to the northern section, a 26km stretch from Thirlmere to Kendal that was inspected in October 2005.  We will also be modernising the Victorian valve structures and replacing them with modern valves.  The preparatory work we do now means that we will be able to change the valves in future without needing to empty the aqueduct.

Using the results of the survey, further maintenance work will be carried out on the aqueduct in future years.

For more information, download our leaflet 'Maintaining the Thirlmere Aqueduct'.

If you have any specific questions, please email cleanandmaintain@uuplc.co.uk

 

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