Vital tunnel repairs at Victorian reservoir

Redmires middle reservoir in Sheffield was completed as long ago as 1836 and is one of the oldest owned by Yorkshire Water in its network.

It is one of a group of three near Lodge Moor to the west of the city which are popular both with walkers and thousands of wildfowl and wading birds which are attracted each year.

The work, beginning today, involves carrying out key improvements to an outlet tunnel that runs between the embankment of Redmires middle and lower reservoirs.

The middle reservoir, which has capacity to hold nearly one million cubic metres of water when it is full, will be emptied for the duration of the work and the water level in the lower reservoir will also be drawn down by around 20ft to enable safe access to the tunnel.

Both reservoirs will be left to fill up naturally after the work is complete.

Yorkshire Water project manager Tom Cochrane said: “It’s vital that we carry out this work at Redmires reservoir in order to ensure the tunnel continues to perform its role effectively.

“We will try to keep any disruption to local residents and site users to an absolute minimum and we’d like to reassure all interested parties that we’ll do everything we can to complete this work as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

There will be two points of access from Redmires Road for site traffic while the work is carried out.

Public access to the crest and bottom of the Redmires middle and lower reservoirs will continue to be restricted during the works for safety reasons.

The water firm said the project should be completed by the end of August.