Scottish Water embarks on £30m improvement project

Scottish Water is set to improve services for more than 54,000 people in parts of Bearsden, Milngavie, Clydebank, and Strathblane as part of £30 million project.

The work will see Scottish Water change the source of its water supply from Burncrook water treatment works (WTW) in West Stirlingshire to Milngavie WTW in East Dunbartonshire. This swap will involve the installation of roughly eight miles of new water mains and the decommissioning of Burncrooks WTW.

The investment should ensure that customers in the north of Bearsden, Blanefield, parts of Strathblane, and a large part of Clydebank receive “the highest quality” drinking water in the years to come.

In February, the company launched a £15 million project to improve water quality and the environment along the river Kelvin.

The new project will be carried out for Scottish Water by its alliance partners Caledonia Water Alliance (CWA) and is expected to be completed in about two years.

The main section of the new plastic water main will be installed at Bankwell service reservoir in the east to Baljaffray service reservoir in the west. The total of eight miles of water main will also include a second stretch of 3.5 miles to be installed near Baljaffray to Carbeth, where it will connect to the existing network.

The pipes will be installed by CWA using mainly the open cut method of excavation.

Several other alternative routes for the pipe were considered, including through more built-up areas of Milngavie and Bearsden, but this route was selected for a number of reasons, including minimising disruption.

The new main will replace an old stretch of 21 inch main which has a history of bursts. More than 80 per cent of the pipe route will be installed on private land rather than under public roads and footpaths.

Paul Sexton, Scottish Water’s alliance management general manager, said: “We are delighted to be starting this important project which will benefit more than 54,000 customers for many years to come.

“Switching supply from the ageing Burncrooks water treatment works to the state-of-the-art Milngavie WTW will enable us to continue providing high-quality water to thousands of domestic properties and businesses and a large number of public buildings including more than 30 schools in three local authority areas and hospitals such as the Golden Jubilee in Clydebank.”

Roseanna Cunningham, cabinet secretary for environment, climate change and land reform, added: “I welcome Scottish Water’s announcement of £30 million investment into the drinking water infrastructure for parts of the Bearsden, Milngavie, Clydebank and Strathblane areas, which will secure a high-quality water supply into the future. Importantly, the installation of new pipes will also improve the resilience of the network and security of supply so this is great news for the tens of thousands of customers in these areas.”