Preston Tunnels

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.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Preston
• tunnels
• River
• Ribble
• Estuary

[coop81uk]

Why don't you sort out the drains that we have, sick of leyland road being flooded