A consortium of Austrian contractor Strabag and UK infrastructure investment firm Equitix has been lined up to refurbish the UK’s longest treated water viaduct.
Water supply company United Utilities identified Strabag-Equitix as the preferred bidder for the Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme (HARP), a major upgrade scheme to maintain drinking water supplies across Cumbria, Lancashire and Greater Manchester.
The contract includes design and construction, finance and maintenance of six tunnel sections of the pipeline.
The construction phase is planned to run over eight years, followed by a further 25 years of maintenance.
Strabag’s UK business will be responsible for the full design and construction scope of the project, while Equitix and the Strabag Group will provide the financing.
Strabag-Equitix said the estimated construction cost will be in the region of £2.5bn to £2.9bn.
Serving two million people daily
The Haweswater Aqueduct is a 110km pipeline running from the Lake District, through Lancashire and into Greater Manchester. It provides up to 570 million litres of drinking water to two million people every day.
Construction started in 1933, but was interrupted by the war and it was finally commissioned in 1955. It was not fully completed until 1972 with the commissioning of the fourth line.
In October 2013, the aqueduct was taken out of service for the first time for a full inspection since its commissioning.
Strabag’s chief executive, Klemens Haselsteiner, said: “This is an exciting programme which will provide a huge amount of benefit to the region.
“In recent years, Strabag UK has reached several impressive milestones on major projects and has seen consistent growth. This is an important step in our expansion plans for the UK division of Strabag and is further recognition of our industry-leading expertise.”
The contract award is planned for the first half of 2025.
