Severn Trent’s £60 million investment in Newark is making good progress, after completing all the clean water renewal work and with the ‘Mount Mole’ tunnel machine completing its first journey.

The project in the Nottinghamshire town will see more than 400 homes and businesses protected from sewer flooding, and will also ‘future proof’ the water supply when completed in 2020.

Nick Wallace, from Severn Trent, said:

“It’s exciting times for us now we’ve finished renewing the water pipes in the town. This means everyone in Newark can start to see the benefits of our work and enjoy a reliable water supply for years to come.

“Alongside this, the ‘Mount Mole’ has finished its first journey from the Mount School to the middle of Sleaford Road. So we can now get it ready for its next journey, which will be from Harrisons Way to Sleaford Road again.”

In total, the ‘Mount Mole’ will create six tunnels in Newark, which will allow the larger sewer pipes to be installed that’s needed to protect hundreds of homes and businesses from flooding.

The project is Severn Trent’s biggest investment in the East Midlands, seeing a complete overhaul of the waste and water network in the town, with work carried out by BNM Alliance.

“We have another slightly bigger tunnel to create, and after this we’re then planning on launching our biggest tunnelling machine under Newark,” Nick Wallace continued. “This particular tunnel will be big enough to drive a transit van down, and we’re looking to launch the machine towards the end of summer.”

With a diameter of around 3 metres, the machine will travel from Crankley Point in the north of the town and make its way to the southern end, arriving at Millgate, laying the huge new sewers as it goes.