Image description: Haweswater reservoir. Image by Dave Noonan from Pixabay

United Utilities has announced a £3bn deal to refurbish the Haweswater aqueduct, which carries water from Cumbria to 2.5m customers across Greater Manchester and Lancashire.

The 68-mile pipeline is almost 70 years old, and the refurbishment has been described as ‘one of the largest water infrastructure programmes across the UK’. The contract has been awarded to Cascade Infrastructure, a consortium of partners with experience of delivering similar tunnelling schemes in Europe.

It is the first in the water sector to be delivered through a Direct Procurement for Customers model, which aims to provide better value for customers. Work on the scheme – which will see six tunnel sections replaced, with most of the work happening underground – will start in 2026. Around 1,200 people could be employed at the peak of the programme, including an apprenticeship scheme.