Severn Trent has installed its third and final bypass pipe as part of its £300m Birmingham Resilience Project.
The 1.8km pipe will be used to transport more than 300 million litres of water into Birmingham while work is carried out on the 100-year-old Elan aqueduct which is used in transporting the city’s supplies from Wales.
The project will both upgrade the existing aqueduct and see a new pipe constructed from Stourport to the company’s water treatment works in the city. This will be used as a back-up supply while maintenance work is carried out on the original pipe.
The original pipe meanwhile will be shut down in October while the new bypass is connected.
A company spokesperson said: “The bypasses were built as there were three sections of the original pipe that needed a bit of TLC.
“We can only shut down the pipe for 5 days – that’s how much storage we have – and it takes a day to drain down and a day to fill back up again, giving us a very limited three-day window to do any maintenance.”