A lane closure is planned on the London Road in Bath later this month as part of a £1.3 million scheme by Wessex Water to protect the River Avon.
Work is ongoing at the Lambridge site | Photo courtesy of Wessex Water
National Grid will be carrying out work on the road, next to the Lambridge rugby ground site, for five days during half-term from Monday 23rd October.
It will help provide power for the nearby project that aims to reduce the operation of storm overflows by easing the pressure on the sewer system during storms.
As the work moves across the carriageway, a lane on the other side of the road will then be closed to complete it, with the work being completed by the end of Friday 27 October.
Wessex Water project manager Jonathan Barker said: “Our project is proceeding well, with the storm tank being put into place, and is on target to finish within the five-month period set out for its completion.
“We also hope to hand the majority of the car park back to the rugby club during the course of November as the construction element of our work is completed.
“The work on London Road is to have power in place to ensure the success of the project and this work has been planned to coincide with the half-term holidays. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
The overall five-month Lambridge project will see a new storage tank built below ground in the car park of Bath RFC’s rugby ground, which will help prevent flooding by hosting increased flows from combined sewers, which carry both wastewater from homes and businesses and rain run-off from buildings and surfaces, during periods of heavy downpours.
Overflows are designed as a relief valve to protect homes from flooding. Currently, if there is too much rainfall in the system, the overflow automatically discharges into the river.
Extra storage means that once the weather recedes, the stored water can then be returned to the sewer system for its journey to a nearby water recycling centre, where it is treated before being safely returned to the environment.
The Lambridge work is part of Wessex Water’s £3 million a month investment to reduce how often storm overflows operate.
Wessex Water’s Storm Overflows Improvement Plan also includes measures to beef up the monitoring of overflows across the region and upgrade more than 40 water recycling centres to increase capacity, introducing more nature-based and low-carbon methods.
