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We’re building new pipelines and pumping stations to connect our water supply works in Hampshire to make sure there is enough water for everyone and for the environment during a drought.
Part of our Water for Life – Hampshire programme, the new pipelines and pumping stations will connect our water supply works at Otterbourne, Testwood, and Andover and move water between them.
Moving water around our network will make it more resilient and means we can take less water from the River Test and River Itchen.
This water supply system between resource zones is referred to as the Southampton Link Main (SLM) and Andover Link Main (ALM).
Your questions about the Hampshire Grid answered
In a drought, we need to make sure there is enough water for everyone and for the environment.
This is part of our Water for Life – Hampshire programme work. If we can move water around our network, we’ll be able to improve our resilience and reduce how much water we need to take out of the environmentally sensitive chalk streams, the River Test and River Itchen.
As a result of our projects:
We’ll be able to share water from Otterbourne supply works to River Way supply works (Andover) and Testwood supply works.
We can store more water. As part of our proposed works we are planning to expand the storage capacity at some of our existing service reservoir sites along the pipeline routes.
We’ll have more resilience, so if there was a problem at one of our sites, we can use one of the others to keep people supplied with drinking water.
We’ll be using a mixture of open-cut (trenching) and no-dig (trenchless) construction methodology to build the new pipelines.
As part of our surveys and design process, we’ll make sure we minimise disturbance by going around environmentally sensitive areas and using the most appropriate construction methods. Generally, we would look to use open-cut through farmland / fields and no-dig (such as Horizontal Directional Drilling or tunnelling) to cross critical points such as main roads, rivers and railways.
The project delivers an environmental improvement by allowing us to reduce the abstraction affecting two internationally important chalk rivers – the Rivers Test and Itchen. This will return these rivers to a more natural flow. This will be beneficial to the habitats and species they support.
Energy requirements and carbon emissions during the design, construction and operational stages of the scheme will be carefully considered.
We’ve been working with a team from Archaeology South-East who have been unearthing evidence of prehistoric, Roman, medieval and post-medieval archaeological activity.
Further excavation and analysis of these finds will help archaeologists firm up these conclusions and better understand the ancient history of this area.
We have duties under the Water Industry Act to return land we have temporarily occupied to its former state; this would include reinstating habitats where we have had to remove them for the construction.
We’ll look for opportunities to improve biodiversity through the creation and enhancement of habitats such as grassland, hedgerows and woodland. They would be implemented when they construction work is finished.
In addition, construction projects like this allow us a unique insight into our past, and we expect to uncover, record and publish archaeological finds along the route. We’ll share our findings with the public and schools so everyone can learn more about the history of their local area.
We will be liaising closely with the local planning authorities to identify the planning and other consents that we will need for the scheme. We will make sure that we engage with local communities and other stakeholders ahead of us submitting any applications for planning permission we need to apply for.
We are working with landowners to find the best route for the pipeline. Please email Ellie-May Craddock Ellie-May.Craddock@fishergerman.co.uk, we’d like to hear your views.
We’ve already met some residents who live near or above the SLM pipeline route, to reassure them about the work. The route of the remainder of the SLM pipeline and the entire ALM pipeline will not affect other properties to this extent
A Transfer Main, operates under much higher pressure and more flow than a Distribution Main, as it needs to carry large volumes of water over long distances.
This means it’s not suitable to be connected directly to any properties; the pressure and volume of water is too high and, from an engineering perspective, side connections would impact the effectiveness of the water transfer.
