Southern Water is replacing water mains near Marchwood in a £270,000 project 

A 1,600 metre length of old iron water pipe along Twiggs Lane, SO40 - which has burst as many as eight times in recent years - is being replaced with state of the art protected plastic pipe which should last 70 years. 

And to minimise disruption and damage to the road during the £270,000 project, our engineers will be using 'trenchless' technology where a miniature tunnelling machine bores beneath the surface. 

During the project, which is expected to last around 12 weeks, there will be traffic management and road closures onTwiggs Lane. Residents will always be able to access their properties and working hours on the site are scheduled to be from 7.30am to 6pm so that noise disruption is kept to a minimum. 

"This is an important piece of work which will make a real difference. A few years ago, some customers were out of water for more than four hours as a result of a burst on this section of pipe. There was even a burst on Boxing Day, which must have been a major inconvenience for residents. This project is intended to make such problems a thing of the past," said Peter Simmons, project manager at Southern Water.

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Notes to Editors: 

• Southern Water is spending £3.2 billion upgrading and building new assets between 2015 and 2020.
• From 2020 we have our largest ever and most ambitious plans which will involve investments of £4 billion including 33 kilometres of water main replacement
• Iron water mains are subject to corrosion, especially in areas where the soil has higher than normal concentrations of certain chemicals.
• The new plastic pipes will not corrode and are less prone to damage caused by movement in the ground caused by soil drying and cracking, for example.