A £46m project set to transform Guildford has hit a major milestone. More than half of a huge water pipe has been built with more work in a popular beauty spot coming up.
Thames Water’s new water transfer pipeline will keep taps flowing for 9,000 homes in Cranleigh and the surrounding areas. Connecting west Guildford’s water supply to the east, the new pipe should make the town's water supply more resilient and help prevent outages like the one last year.
The water company has confirmed that over half of the pipe is in place, with 5.8km installed to date. In total the company is laying around 9km of pipeline between Pewley Reservoir in west Guildford to Netley Mill water treatment works in the east of the town.
The project is on track to be completed in time for winter 2025 and when finished will transfer up to 14 megalitres of water per day, equivalent to almost six Olympic swimming pools. The next stage is to lay the pipe on Pewley Hill and Pewley Downs between the villages of Albury and Shere. While this is going on people will still be able to access the popular walking spot.
A road closure will be needed, which started on Monday, November 4. Guildford Lane will be shut so engineers can continue to lay further pipework and is expected to remain closed for around two weeks, during which time a diversion will be in place.
Paul Wetton, Thames Water’s Strategic Programme Director for Water said: “We’ve made significant progress to improve resilience and reliability to water supply across the Guildford area, carrying out a series of upgrades to our water treatment sites and laying over half of our new water transfer pipeline between east and west.
“The Guildford area currently operates as an ‘island’ water supply zone and the new pipeline is particularly important in helping prevent future supply interruptions across the local area. Once complete it will create a back-up source of water for our Cranleigh customers and those in surrounding villages.”
This ‘island zone’ means that water stores run low very quickly when there is an issue. Further water treatment upgrades are also taking place at Ladymead, Netley Mill and Mousehill water treatment works, which will also build further resilience across the area.
The pipeline comes as part of an overhaul of Guildford’s water network that has also included other multi-million-pound projects. The company has installed a new power generator at its Ladymead site. This should minimise the effect of power surges that have caused water supply issues in the past.
At the Shalford site work is underway to improve the reliability of the water treatment process, and at Mousehill to increase the amount of water available.
Jeremy Hunt, MP for Godalming and Ash said: “It’s encouraging to see Thames Water make much needed progress to improve the reliability of local water supply. The investment is long overdue and essential for our community’s future water security.
“My constituents have endured significant disruption from past water outages, and while I welcome these improvements, I will stay in close contact with the company to make sure they fulfil all their commitments to our area."
Galliford Try is carrying out the pipeline works on behalf of Thames Water and have been working carefully to protect the local environment and habitats along the route.
