The construction phase of work to create a drinking water storage reservoir as part of the existing South Staffs Water site at Outwoods in Burton upon Trent, will begin this week.

The project will create Reservoir no.3 - a concrete single story basement construction; covered by a grass embankment in keeping with the rest of the site and the adjacent structure of Reservoir no.2.When complete, it will provide storage of up to 10 million litres of drinking water that feeds into the supply zone for most of Burton upon Trent, Rolleston on Dove, Barton under Needwood, Alrewas, Fradley, and Streethay. 

The Outwoods site has helped supply the local area with drinking water for over 120 years since the original Reservoir no.1 was constructed in 1882. An additional Reservoir no.2 was added in 1962 in response to increased demand on supply.  Reservoir no.3 will replace Reservoir no.1 which has proven increasingly expensive to update and maintain and was taken out of service in 2016.

Stephen Woodhams, Project Manager at South Staffs Water, said: “This is the first reservoir we have constructed since the 1990s and is part of the commitment in our current five year business plan to invest over £190m in our assets. We expect the pressures on our water resources to increase in the future and need to ensure our supply network can continue to operate to provide a safe and reliable water supply for current and future generations.”

The project is scheduled for completion in Winter 2017 and will be undertaken by specialist contractor to the water industry, Stonbury. Local residents were consulted early on in the planning process before an application was approved by East Staffordshire Borough Council in 2014.

Work is not expected to cause interruption to water supply and is being planned to ensure minimal disruption to local residents and surrounding areas.  This includes contractors being expected to be on site before peak hour traffic to minimise any impact on commuters, wheel washes on vehicles before leaving the site to reduce dust and dirt in the area, use of mechanical road sweepers to ensure hard-standings are kept clean and coordination of activities with the contractors on the new homes development also on Reservoir Road.

A dedicated community liaison officer will also be appointed to the project to manage any enquiries and a 24 hour help line is available in case of any enquiries outside of normal working hours. A community portal is also being created as part of the project to provide regular updates available online which will shortly be available at https://outwoods.stonbury.com.

About the Outwoods supply zone and reservoirs:

• Water is taken from the Blithfield Reservoir (near Lichfield) and pumped to the nearby Seedy Mill Treatment Works. Once cleaned and treated it is then pumped into the network which includes storage reservoirs that offer a ‘buffer’ of water in the network. The water is then released from the storage reservoirs into the local supply as needed.
• The Outwoods supply zone includes approximately 26,000 properties, with a total average daily demand of 23 million litres.

7 March 2017