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Preston Tunnels
£114 million upgrade to improve the River Ribble estuary and the coastal environment
As part of our work to protect the environment we are building a 3.5 km long storm water storage tunnel in the Preston and Penwortham areas. This will bring significant environmental improvements to the Fylde coast bathing waters and designated shellfish beds located within the Ribble Estuary.
At present when Preston experiences heavy rainfall the sewers in Fishergate Hill, Marsh Lane, Watery Lane and near Penwortham pumping station become overwhelmed, resulting in storm water overflowing into the River Ribble.
Our £114 million project will reduce the number of spills to the River Ribble. The new storage tunnel will retain storm water that previously overflowed into the river, before it is pumped to Preston wastewater treatment works.
In order to construct the stormwater tunnel a number of shafts must be built which allow access for the tunnelling machines and spoil to be removed. The shaft locations are dictated by the location of the current network as we must pick up the flows before transferring them to the new tunnel. The shafts are up to 10.5m in diameter at an average depth of 26m.
The tunnel and shafts provide approximately 40,500 cubic metres of storage. Stormwater volumes in excess of this will pass through mechanical screens before being discharged to the River Ribble at the pumping station site. The contents of the tunnels will be transferred via the pumping station to Preston Wastewater Treatment Works at Clifton Marsh for treatment.
The route of our storage tunnel is shown on this map. The construction of a storage tunnel will minimise the overall impact to the city centre. By working closely with the local councils it is intended to keep disruption to a minimum. Construction work began in spring 2010 and overall completion is expected by 2013. We aim to complete the major work within the city centre by summer 2012.
A video showing what we are doing and why can be found here.
We will continue to keep you up to date on this project which we consider to be great news for the Preston and Penwortham areas.