Manchester pipeline team wins national award

Thirlmere Aqueduct

Manchester pipeline clean-up helps United Utilities win national award for seamless £143m programme of "open heart surgery” on water network.

A major overhaul of the oldest and most important aquaducts and water pipelines in the North West has won a national award.

United Utilities won the Programme of the Year Award at the Association of Project Managers annual awards in London.

Over the last five years, the company has been working on the "arteries” of the water supply network, repairing wear and tear and giving them their first ever deep clean.

These include the 120-year-old Thirlmere Aqueduct which can supply Manchester with up to 250 million litres of water from the Lake District every day. Also in the programme was the Manchester Ring Main, which encircles the city like the M60, keeping water on tap for 1.8 million people every day.

Decades of naturally-occurring sediment have been scoured from the inside of more than 200km of large diameter pipes, some of which are large enough for an adult to walk through, using polyurethane foam plugs known as "pigs” and specially designed pressure jetting rigs.

United Utilities programme manager Nick Gooseman said: "We've never undertaken anything on this scale before and the programme has been a huge success. I'm very proud of the individuals and teams who have made it happen and the commitment and ingenuity they've shown”.

"Keeping water supplies on tap while shutting down some of these major aqueducts and water pipes for maintenance is no mean feat. It was akin to performing open heart surgery on our system and now our customers and future generations will see the benefits of cleaner water and a more secure supply network for many years to come."
The judges were impressed with the way the programme team coordinated more than 30 separate projects while maintaining a seamless service for homes and businesses across the North West.

The five-year programme will now be extended into 2020, focussing on the Haweswater Aqueduct and a further 386km of large diameter water pipes.