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Water firm United Utilities is yet to decide on awarding contracts to businesses linked to the huge £1.75billion Haweswater Viaduct pipeline scheme set to run from the Lake District to Lancashire and Greater Manchester.
Meanwhile, councillors in one part of Lancashire where the pipeline will pass through are awaiting a detailed local economic assessment about its potential impact on businesses and communities in their area.
Last year, some engineering trade media reported that overseas-based companies were being potentially considered for a Haweswater contracts short-list. Companies based in Spain, Italy, Germany. Austria, Canada and elsewhere were mentioned.
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Then earlier this year, United Utilities announced a £50million technical adviser consultancy search. A ‘competitive appointed provider’ system is being used for this with the water industry regulator Ofwat.
This arrangement aims to get assurances around costs and delivery of the massive engineering and construction scheme. The eventual contract winner will act independently and owe a duty of care to all the main organisations involved in the Haweswater project including United Utilities and Ofwat.
The Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme (known as HARP) will be the largest infrastructure project undertaken by United Utilities since the UK water industry was privatised. The construction phase is expected to last around eight years. But United Utilities may want a contractor to maintain the new water tunnels for 25 years after.
Ultimately, money paid by north-west households, through water bills over the coming years, will go towards paying the successful contractors.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service recently asked United Utilities for an update on any contract decisions. A spokesperson said: “United Utilities is still undertaking the procurement processes to identify the competitively appointed provider and independent technical adviser for HARP. As such, at this time no contracts have been awarded. We will issue an update on this when they have.”
The HARP water tunnel scheme is split into sections passing through different council areas including Lancaster, Ribble Valley, Hyndburn, Rossendale and Bury. So different councils along the route have been involved in planning applications from United Utilities.
The Ribble Valley includes much of the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It has some protected status similar to, but lower than, national parks such as the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales.
Some people are concerned that rural Bowland villages and businesses, including wedding venues, pubs, restaurants, farms and shops, could be hit by Haweswater works disruption or a public perception that the area is ‘shut’ or hard to reach or visually unsightly. Planned work includes rural road strengthening, special HGV traffic routes from the A59 north of Clitheroe into the Bowland area, a new crossing over the River Ribble and work compounds in fields.
Ribble Valley Council was recently questioned by one councillor, Conservative Kevin Horkin, about whether it had yet carried out a detailed economic impact assessment about Haweswater scheme in its area Coun Horkin said the council had done an environmental assessment but was unsure about an in-depth economic study.
He was told the borough’s planning committee expects to get an economic impact report from council officers.
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