Dear Councillors
My name is Tony Shead and I am a Design Engineer working for Wessex Water.
I’m currently working on a scheme to replace the existing 6” PVC water main that is attached to the side of the A361 road bridge over the River Parrett at Burrowbridge. Having looked at a number of potential options for replacing this water main, the preferred solution is to remove the existing water main from the side of the bridge and fix a new polyethylene water main in its place.
As the bridge is a Listed structure, its important that we try to use the same type of fittings and brackets to fix the new water main back to the bridge that our predecessors used when the existing water main was installed in the late 1960’s. As such, we are planning to close the A361 road bridge between 09:30 and 14:30 on Wednesday 15th March to carry out a survey of the existing water main and its associated fixings, brackets, cladding etc.
This date has been agreed with Somerset Council and we will also be writing to all local residents, schools and businesses to let them know what is happening.
Purely for info, I have attached a photo showing the existing water main. It is currently encased within a tin sleeve but where this sleeve has been damaged over the years, the existing PVC main has started to degrade in places. When this happens, the PVC main turns white through exposure to the sun making it brittle and prone to bursting. There is actually a very small leak on this pipe at the moment hence the reason we are looking to replace it soon.
I hope the above makes sense but if you have any queries, please feel free to drop me a line.
Regards
Tony
