Strabag to renew Haweswater tunnels

United Utilities has named Strabag Equitix Consortium as its preferred bidder for a new type of design, build, finance and maintain contract to replace six tunnel sections of the Haweswater Aqueduct.

The Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme, or HARP, will see 50km (31 miles) of aqueduct replaced. At an estimated construction cost of between £2.5bn and £2.9bn, it will be one of the largest water infrastructure projects undertaken in the northwest.

Austrian civil engineering contractor Strabag will lead on the construction while its joint venture partner Equitix, a fund manager, will handle the money side.

The original aqueduct, completed in the 1950s, supplies water from the Lake District to communities in Cumbria, Lancashire and Greater Manchester. Inspections conducted in 2013 and 2016 raised concerns about the risk of failure.

Six tunnel sections along the 110km aqueduct route will be replaced to ensure continuity of drinking water supply.

The project is being delivered through a ‘direct procurement for customers’ (DPC) model – the first time this model has been used in the UK water sector.  DPC is a form of design, build, finance and maintain introduced by water industry regulator Ofwat during the 2019 price review. The procurement process is now in its final stage of financial close, with contract award planned for the first half of 2025, subject to consent by Ofwat.

Main construction activity is expected to start in 2026.

United Utilities strategic programmes director Neil Gillespie said: “This is a significant milestone in our journey to replace the Haweswater Aqueduct tunnels so that we can continue to provide customers in the northwest with a reliable supply of quality drinking water into the future. This is the culmination of a lot of hard work from a dedicated team, and we are really pleased to have now established our preferred bidder.”

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