Scottish Water is to build a 3.1 mile long waste water tunnel in the south of Glasgow.

The work will be part of the largest upgrade of the city's waste water network in more than a century.

The £100m tunnel will run between Queen's Park and Craigton industrial estate via Pollok and Bellahouston parks.

It will also be the biggest storm water storage tunnel in the country and will resolve water quality and reduce flooding issues at key locations in the area served by the Shieldhall Waster Water Treatment Works (WWTW).

It is a major part of Scottish Water's £250m, five-year programme of work to upgrade the network within the Glasgow area.

The project will help to improve river water quality, as well as the natural environment of the River Clyde and its tributaries. It will also enable the Greater Glasgow area to grow and develop, alleviate sewer flooding and deal with the effects of increased rainfall and climate change.

The tunnel will be 4.65m in diameter, big enough to fit a double-decker bus inside and more than five times as long as the Clyde Tunnel.

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Work is expected to start in mid-2014 and take three and a half years to complete.

The new waste water tunnel will transfer combined sewer flows (surface water such as rainfall and waste water from properties) and provide storm storage (of heavy rainfall). It will be constructed using a specially designed tunnel boring machine, which will follow a route from the Queen's Park area towards Pollok Park. The tunnel will head northwards under Pollok Park and beneath the M77 and then beneath Bellahouston Park, terminating at Craigton industrial estate where it will join the existing network and where waste water will flow onwards to Shieldhall WWTW.

Geoff Aitkenhead, Scottish Water's Asset Management Director, said: "Following the launch in February of our five-year programme of investment to transform the Greater Glasgow area's waste water infrastructure, we are delighted to be able to confirm this key part of the programme.

"The Shieldhall tunnel will resolve large-scale water quality problems in the River Clyde and its tributaries, provide aesthetic screening to overflows into watercourses such as tributaries of the Clyde and White Cart Water and reduce the risk of flooding in Aikenhead Road and Curtis Avenue in Mount Florida and Robslee Drive, Robslee Road, Robslee Crescent and Orchard Park Avenue in Giffnock.

"The tunnel will increase capacity and alleviate pressure on the existing network by providing additional storm water storage."

The tunnel route was carefully selected to minimise disruption across the city.

Scottish Water has said most of the work will be under ground and the vast majority of people will be unaffected by it. However, an extensive community engagement plan is under way in communities which will be affected during construction and steps will be taken to keep disruption to a minimum.

(JP/CD)