Barhale wins mains upgrade work at Victoria and Euston

Barhale has secured two further contracts under Thames Water’s AMP7 Conditional Allowance Trunk Main Schemes both adjacent to major London railway terminuses.

The awards bringing the total value of works Barhale has been awarded under the scheme to £24.8M.

The Victoria Station Trunk Main Replacement and the Eversholt Street Mains Replacement join the recently announced Fortis Green Trunk Main Replacement in the programme of AMP7 upgrades to essential water assets across London.

At Victoria Station, civil engineering, infrastructure and tunnelling specialist Barhale will rehabilitate more than a kilometre of a 30” cast iron water main. Work is divided into two sections: 609 metres between Eaton Square and Victoria Street and a further 412 metres at Wilton Road to a point immediately south of its crossing with Warwick Way.

The majority of the existing main will be sliplined with 710mm SDR17 Polyethylene pipe. Short open cut sections will be required at launch and reception pits and connection locations. At these points the original pipe will be replaced with 600mm nominal bore ductile iron pipework.

At Eversholt Street near Euston Station, Barhale will rehabilitate a 660 metre length of 16” cast iron water main also using a combination of opencut and slip lining using 355mm SDR17 Polyethylene pipe.

Shane Gorman, Barhale’s Water Director – Southern Region explained that the extremely busy nature of both locations had a significant influence on the engineering solution.

“These are two of the most important rail gateways to the capital with thousands of passengers travelling through every hour,” he said. “Also, around each site, the roads are very busy so it has been important to develop an approach that would not only protect future water supply in each area, but one which also minimises the impact to the local communities, businesses and rail and road users.

“Our engineers will use a number of launch and reception pits to slipline the existing water main. This means we will be able to avoid the large-scale disruption that can be caused by continuous trenches and deliver a faster, better result. We will also reduce environmental impact in comparison with traditional open-cut methods.

“We are very pleased that Thames Water has demonstrated its confidence in Barhale with these awards for schemes at such sensitive locations and we look forward to working closely with the Thames Water team to deliver this innovative solution.”

Esther Sharples, Operations Director for London said: “We’re committed to keeping the taps flowing for Londoners and this multi-million-pound investment will further future-proof our network.

“By working with Barhale and investing in innovative technology to upgrade our ageing Victorian pipes, we’re also able to reduce disruption for our customers in a busy central London location.”

Handover and commissioning is expected at Eversholt Street in Spring of 2024 and at Victoria Station towards the end of 2024.