By rosebell
The responsibility of two TBMs to be deployed on Southern Water’s Southampton Link Main (SLM) pipeline was up to local children an the machines have been named after Celtic goddess Ancasta, who was associated with Hampshire’s River Itchen, and 19th-century fossil hunter Mary Anning, who was renowned for her significant discoveries of fossils along the Dorset coast.
Linking to two underground reservoirs, in Yew Hill to the north where a new storage tank is being built, and at a site on the outskirts of Southampton, this 19km-long pipeline will run underground. Enabling Southern Water to decrease the amount of water its takes from the Test and Itchen chalk streams will be the advantage of this reservoirs.
While most of the pipeline are due to be laid by digging trenches, installing the pipeline and then backfilling, the TBMs are going to drill deeper tunnels where it is necessary to avoid disruption to major roads, railway lines or ecological sites.
The works will be delivered in partnership with MGjv, a joint venture between M Group Water and Galliford Try.
The scheduled time duration for completing SLM that will cost over than £100m and is three years.
