United Utilities TBM progressing under M65
4 August 2020UK water services provider United Utilities has started boring a new wastewater pipeline beneath the M65 motorway at Darwen in Lancashire, northern England. The project forms part of the £150m Blackburn and Darwen wastewater upgrade scheme.
Having been lowered by crane into the launch shaft just off the M65 on 27 July 2020, the 1.8m-diameter TBM is expected to take around eight weeks to complete its bore. The laser-guided 23t machine is being driven from the surface by main contractor LiMA – a trading brand of Laing O’Rourke which, along with Atkins, forms the JV that was awarded the project in December 2017.
Mining at depths of around 16m below the motorway, the TBM is boring a 270m-long tunnel that will form part of the 1.6km pipeline being laid between the Blackburn and Darwen wastewater treatment works.
The project aims to improve local watercourses that are tributaries of the River Darwen which feeds into the River Ribble. It is anticipated that the project will also help improve bathing water quality along the Fylde coast.
A key element of the project is the installation at Blackburn of Nereda technology, hailed as a ‘significant and evolutionary step in wastewater treatment’.
The project is expected to be operational in 2021.
