Belfast-headquartered Farrans Construction has won a £6 million contract with United Utilities.

The contract is for the water company’s Barrow Outfall Relocation and includes the design and build of a new tidal pumping station and outfall pipeline.The new sewer outfall will extend 1400 metres across an inter-tidal area. 

Site survey work for the project was undertaken by Geotechnics using its hybrid Hagglund cable percussion rig to sink 16 boreholes over the length of the pipeline route to depths varying between 7m and 12m below ground level.

Five companies were in the bidding for the contract.

Farrans Construction is the largest building and civil engineering contractor operating in Northern Ireland, with regional bases in Edinburgh, Cambridge and Dublin and operational interests throughout the UK, Ireland and Europe.

Farrans’ clients in the water sector include Scottish Water, Northumbrian Water, Essex and Suffolk Water, Affinity Water, NI Water and Dublin City Water Department.

The firm is currently working on the Irish Water Domestic Metering on meter installation and commissioning for the County Dublin Region, which includes an estimated 195,000 meter installations to serve a population of approximately 750,000 residents.

Farrans is undertaking all works associated with the meter installation process including site survey, design, traffic management design, supply of AMR meters & boundary boxes, construction, installation, commissioning and AMR testing.  Work commenced in October 2013 and is planned for completion in mid-2016.

In Scotland, Farrans are currently upgrading the existing Scottish Water Sewage Pumping station as the Construction Delivery Partner for Scottish Water Solutions. The construction of the new pumping station is a fast track project which needs to be completed by 31st March 2014 to comply with SEPA discharge consents.