Southern Water aims to complete Old Portsmouth sewer repairs in March ending road closure misery
An end is now finally in sight for works to repair a burst sewer pipe which have led to a road being closed for eight months - but it means another huge temporary pipe will need to be installed.
Parts of Pembroke Road and the adjoining Gordon Road have been closed since June last year after a sewer pipe burst in Pier Road in May, with Southern Water initially expected to have completed the works before the end of August last year.
But now it is hoped the repair works will be completed over the coming weeks which means the road closures can end in March.
As previously reported by The News, last summer an enormous temporary pipe was installed to allow the repairs to take place after the failure of the Storm Water Rising Main which serves Pier Road Water Pumping Station (WPS). This included the structural lining repair of the rising main with the temporary pipe spanning from near the Pier Road pumping station to just outside the Royal Garrison Church.
However the works needed were more complicated than initially expected which threw that timescale out of the window while a longer term plan was put together with more work needed to plan and carry out the work because of the size of the pipe involved.
So far Southern Water has has also relined around 95 per cent of the pipe in the areas which do not affect the monuments in the area which it says will help reduce the likelihood of future bursts.
But now it has said another overland pipe will be installed to allow the next phase of the repair works to begin which involved replacing a very large pipe which is 1,000mm in diameter.
A spokesperson for Southern Water said: “Our teams are continuing to fix a burst sewer pipe in Pier Road, Portsmouth. This is a complex repair and we are working on a permanent solution.
“Currently, a small section of Pembroke Road and Gordon Road is closed to allow for the storage of equipment. We’re sorry for the disruption this is causing in the area.
“This week we will be installing an overland pipe in Pembroke Road, which will allow our nearby pumping station to continue to operate while we replace the damaged pipe in Pier Road.
“We expect this work to be finished by the end of March.”