The scheme is part of the first phase of Scottish Water’s £120 million investment in the drinking water network to benefit more than 200,000 people and businesses in much of Ayrshire and parts of East Renfrewshire.
The route of this section of water main, which goes over mainly farmland and open moorland, starts at Waulkmill Glen reservoir near Newton Mearns in the north and goes south via Drumboy Hill, close to the M77 and A77 to Amlaird Water Treatment Works near Fenwick, with branches to the South Moorhouse and Corsehouse water treatment works.
Following 18 months of preparatory work, which included the creation of a strip for the water main to be installed and involved close liaison with landowners and statutory bodies as well as detailed ecological studies, contractors for Scottish Water have been laying sections of pipe adjacent to the route prior to installation.
The contractors are now setting up welding areas and excavating 5m-deep trenches before using a large crane to lower 12m-long sections of the steel pipe, weighing up to three tonnes, into place.
Scottish Water’s programme manager Stewart Davis said: “We are delighted to have completed all the preparatory work for this section of main and to have started the construction phase. This is a major piece of work on the first phase of Scottish Water’s overall investment in improvements to connect the system in Ayrshire with the Greater Glasgow area’s network.
“We have worked closely with many different stakeholders, including landowners and statutory bodies, and we would like to thank them for their help and co-operation which has enabled us to complete the preparatory work and now move on to the construction phase. This involves installing a new water main from Waulkmill Glen reservoir to the Fenwick Waterside area, which we estimate will be completed this autumn.”
Scottish Water announced in December 2015 that it will improve the water supply network by installing 30 miles of new water mains to connect the system in Ayrshire with the Greater Glasgow area’s network. The other sections of new mains will be a section of about 13 miles from the Fenwick Waterside area to Dundonald in South Ayrshire and a section of about six miles from the Pollok area to a reservoir storage tank in the south of Glasgow
The new and expanded network will enable Scottish Water to provide customers with greater security of supply and to respond more effectively to operational issues such as burst water mains and minimise disruption to customers.
Customers across a large part of Ayrshire currently receive their water from Bradan WTW, south of Straiton in South Ayrshire. The construction of the new strategic water main, which is expected to take about four years, 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.