Project to stop sewer flooding finished ahead of schedule

A project to prevent sewer flooding in Bailiff Bridge that saw one of the village's busiest roads closed as finished two weeks ahead of schedule.
Bailiff Bridge (Google Street View)Bailiff Bridge (Google Street View)
Bailiff Bridge (Google Street View)

Wakefield Road had been closed for seven weeks to ensure the safety of the local community as Yorkshire Water and contract partners, Mott MacDonald Bentley carried out the work.

Workers managed to complete the work ahead of schedule by using a technique to install the new sewer called auger boring, which is faster but not always possible due to ground conditions.

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Auger boring means two holes are dug and the new pipe is tunneled under the ground from one pit to the other.

Due to the large amount of pipes and cables and pipes from other utilities under this section of Wakefield Road, the alternative would have been to hand-dig a trench which would have taken much longer.

Jonathan LeMoine, Project Manager for Yorkshire Water said: “We appreciate that this scheme was disruptive to residents and road-users but we had no other option if our contractors were to work quickly and safely.

“We’d like to thank anyone affected by the roadworks for their patience throughout this essential project.”

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Some local homes previously suffered from flooding in times of heavy rainfall. Rain water from the road went into the sewer, overloading the system causing water to back up the pipes and flood homes and gardens.

The project, costing £150,000, is part of a £3.8bn investment programme by Yorkshire Water between 2015 and 2020. The company’s network of pipes stretches for 51,500 miles and collects, treats and returns to the environment 1 billion litres of water every day.

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