This deals with the Thames Water Ring Main Extensions and its plan to increase the area served by its London Ring Main by constructing two extensions in a £90m project. The tunnelling will take place in north-east and south-east London and will help Thames Water to meet the capital's growing demand for water. The Ring Main was built to improve the speed and efficiency of transferring supplies of drinking water across the capital.
Thames Water is now planning two new tunnels to extend the Ring Main. Each will be around three miles in length. One new pipe will link Coppermills Water Treatment Works to the Ring Main, by connecting existing mains at Stoke Newington and Thames Water's New River Head site, in Islington. Coppermills is currently the only one of the capital's five major water treatment works that is not connected to the Ring Main.
The project will also include the construction of a second tunnel, feeding water from the Ring Main to an existing underground reservoir called Honor Oak, in Peckham. The £90m project is due to be completed by 2010, with work likely to start in autumn 2006. As with construction of the original Ring Main, work will be completed by underground boring machines, thereby minimising disruption at street level.
The extensions will enhance the flexibility of London's water supply system. For example, the link to the Ring Main could help supply north-east London in the event of operational problems at Coppermills. The southern pipeline will also provide additional storage capacity in that area, helping to cope with daily fluctuations in demand. The Ring Main project will not, in itself, provide new sources of water, but will improve the transfer capability of potable supplies around the capital.