25 August 2010
We are responding to a burst on a large water main in Alder Lane in Orford, Warrington this morning. It happened at around 9.30am, and was caused when third party contractors carrying out roadworks in the area accidentally damaged the main.
This is a major pipeline for the area, and we understand that properties in East Warrington, especially the WA1, 2, 3 and 5 areas are experiencing water loss. We have taken more than 1,000 calls so far.
Engineers are on site. Our priority will be to shut off the pipe, and make a repair as quickly as possible. We are trying to divert supplies from elsewhere in our network, to restore supplies to as many customers as possible, while work takes place. We are also deploying large water tankers to the area, which will help to restore supplies, by pumping water directly into the pipe network.
We expect it to be midday before customers begin to have supplies restored.
We ask customers to bear with us, and can assure them everything is being done to resume normal service as quickly as possible.
Updated 13.30: Our engineers are continuing to tackle a burst on a large water main in Alder Lane, Orford in Warrington, after it was damaged this morning by a third party carrying out roadworks in the area.
We have managed to restore supplies to approximately half the affected customers in East Warrington, by re-routing water supplies from elsewhere in its pipe network. Half a dozen large water tankers have been deployed to get temporary supplies to remaining customers, by pumping clean, chlorinated water directly into the pipe network.
Around 4,000 customer calls have been received in total.
We are working hard to get things back to normal. The repair to the damaged pipe is still likely to take a few hours to complete. In the meantime, we are trying to get as many customers as possible back on supply, by re-routing supplies from other parts of the pipe network, and by using water tankers to pump directly into the mains.
We'd like to thank customers for their patience, and can reassure them that we are doing everything possible to restore supplies.
Further updates will be availabe in our Emergencies section.
Updated 10:30am 26/08 - Water supplies were fully restored to customers in East Warrington last night, after contractors working for a third party accidentally damaged a pipe in Orford. We would like to apologise to customers for the unexpected disruption to their supplies, which was not of our making.
Our engineers were on site quickly and worked very hard to rectify the situation, managing to restore water to around half the estimated 20,000 customers affected within four hours using high pressure water tankers which pumped chlorinated water directly into the mains, and by re-routing supplies from other parts of our pipe network. The repair was completed and normal service resumed for all by around 8pm Wednesday evening.
We thank customers for their patience during this major repair.