The £2 million new pipes which will replace the existing Cross Solent Water Main have been loaded on to reels in Denmark

The pipes were made at a factory belonging to NKT Flexibles in Kalundborg where the loading took place over several days.

The flexible pipes are made up of several layers of specialist material which will protect them when they are installed under the seabed in the Solent.

The two pipes are two-kilometres long and had to be handled very carefully when being loaded.

They were slowly unravelled and wound on to giant reels loaded on a barge on the water.

Safely on board after years of design, manufacture and planning, the barge waited for better weather to set sail across the North Sea to the Solent.