Thames Water serves 13 million
customers throughout London and the Thames Valley and is
currently in the process of making various improvements that
will create a more sustainable network throughout the City of
London.
The City of London Corporation has been working closely with
Thames Water in order to ensure that any local disruption to
businesses and residents caused by these improvements is kept to a
minimum.
Thames Water is to spend £55million over the next three years
replacing 109km of Victorian water mains in the City and parts of
the Fringe (north of Farringdon and around the Tower of London)
in nine district metered areas (DMAs). A third of these water
mains are over 150 years old and half are over 100 years old. The
work started in April 2006 and is due to be finished by January
2010. 17million litres a day will be saved in the City following
the mains replacement programme, this is equivalent to providing
water to over 90,000 people a day and will drastically cut the
burst rate of approximately 200 incidents in the City annually. The
newly installed distribution mains will meet the London Plan
population growth forecasts for the next 25 years.
During the programme most City businesses will be affected by an
interruption to their water supply and interruptions could last
from four to eight hours. However, the Thames Water
project team have been liaising with businesses on an individual
basis to ensure that critical needs are met, eg by working outside
of main business hours, running temporary water supplies through
over-ground pipes. City businesses are warned of how the work will
affect them two weeks before commencement and again 48 hours before
it starts. In addition, the City of London’s City Property Advisory
Team (CPAT), has been helping Thames Water get the message out to
businesses by organising seminars before work begins in their areas
– one was held in March at the Grocers’ Hall and the next one will
be held there in January 2007.
If you have any further queries about the mains replacement
programme please contact CPAT on tel 020 7332 3493.