Last week, TBM Fionnuala broke through at MH09 - a 6m diameter shaft 30m deep, following a 2km long drive, as part of the North Bristol relief sewer project. Fionnuala will take a short break at this location before continuing on her journey to complete the North Bristol Relief Sewer Tunnel for Wessex Water. 

In April 2018 Wessex Water awarded J Murphy and Sons a design and build contract to construct the 6.5 km, 3 m diameter  tunnel and lay the pipework  that will reduce flood risk and increase stormwater storage capacity to accommodate ongoing and future developments in Bristol and South Gloucestershire. The new pipeline will connect Bristol’s existing trunk sewer in Lawrence Weston to the Frome Valley relief sewer near Cribbs Causeway and will direct waste more efficiently around North Bristol to their water recycling centre in Avonmouth.  

The majority of the sewer will be constructed by tunnelling underground using a TBM, reducing the need to dig trenches. The North Bristol Tunnelling team will tunnel underneath the M5 motorway and Network Rail’s Henbury Loop freight railway. The construction began in summer 2019.  

Learn more about the project by watching this video and visit https://www.wessexwater.co.uk. 15/21.