Caledonia Water Alliance (CWA) is continuing work on a water network upgrade project in East Ayrshire.

The contractor has used Tunnel Boring Machines to install a 67-metre-long steel pipe, housed in a 60 metre-long concrete tunnel with a 1.2m diameter, under the A77 near Kilmarnock. Another stretch of pipe was laid beneath the River Irvine near Hurlford.

The tunnelling work started in mid-October and took five weeks to complete.

In addition, CWA also installed a 70 metre-long stretch of tunnel, built out of 1.5 metre diameter concrete rings, about four metres below the river bed of the River Irvine west of Hurlford between the A77 and the B7073.

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The works are part of the second phase of a £120m investment in the region's drinking water network, which will benefit more than 200,000 people and businesses in much of Ayrshire and parts of East Renfrewshire.

Sean Lavin, Senior Construction Manager, said: "We are continuing to make good progress with the project and this latest piece of work near Kilmarnock is a very important part of that.

"When planning the work, we did everything we could to minimise any disruption or inconvenience to road users. We recognised how busy the A77 is at this location and that is one of the reasons why we opted to construct a tunnel, which doesn't require any roadworks.

"In addition, although we previously diverted a stretch of the Craufurdland Water further north to install a stretch of the same water main beneath the river bed, we decided to tunnel beneath the River Irvine at Hurlford.

"This was because trenching and diverting the river would have been much more difficult due to the size of the river and lack of space at the crossing point and because it would have been much more disruptive. At all times during this project, we try to do whatever we can to minimise disruption to road users and the natural environment."

(LM)