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News & Media > Utility Services

01:03:2013

'Complicated and delicate' repair successfully completed

Working on behalf of South West Water, May Gurney has successfully repaired a sewer collapse on a busy street in Exeter, without damaging an underground medieval bridge located directly below.

The collapsed sewer and 13th Century Larkbeare Bridge, a scheduled ancient monument and one of the earliest surviving stone bridges in southwest England, are located below Holloway Street in Exeter.

Most of the 9.5m section of damaged pipe had to be repaired by hand to avoid vibrating machinery damaging the bridge, in what was described by South West Water as a ‘complicated and delicate’ repair.

English Heritage described the structure as a "remarkable and rare example of medieval engineering" and one of “the nation's most important archaeological heritage”.

Geoffrey Rogers, from South West Water, said: "We are very pleased to have completed this difficult and delicate repair successfully."

The collapse of a 9.5m section of pipe in Holloway Street resulted in sewerage coming up through the road and running down the street.

Holloway Street is a major road and any works have the potential to create traffic chaos. To minimise this risk, May Gurney provided manned two-way traffic control from 7am – 7pm, seven days a week; traffic flow/movement can be more accurately gauged by manned points rather than an automated system.

Because the collapse occurred directly above a scheduled monument a fast class consent order had to be issued by the Secretary of State before any repair works could commence.

May Gurney liaised with stakeholders including National Heritage, Traffic Management Unit, Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Devon County Council to complete the works in just five weeks; it normally takes six months to request a permit from the Secretary of State but in this instance the process was fast tracked due to the important nature of the site.

James West, project manager for May Gurney, said: “There was potential for the monument to collapse if we did not approach the works correctly.

“Vibrating digging equipment was not permitted in case this caused the structure to collapse and we had to rethink the process for cutting through the 300mm of tarmac and 300mm of reinforced concrete which formed the road surface. The final method involved using a diamond bladed circular saw to cut the road into sections which could be lifted out.

“Our specially trained confined space teams were joined by experts in lime mortar to repair the monument using traditional masonry techniques. Twice daily inspections were conducted on the structure to check for weakness or movement.”

The repairs were carried out under May Gurney’s Sewerage Capital Reactive Contract (SCRC) with South West Water which covers emergency repairs across southwest England.

Click here to read a BBC News report on the project.