Plans revealed for major Swalecliffe engineering project

Southern Water has announced details of how it will replace a sea outfall pipe at Swalecliffe as part of a major upgrade of its wastewater treatment works. 

The engineering project follows sea damage to the existing outfall and will allow teams to install a much longer pipe in its place. 

This will mean any releases of stormwater from this outfall – which only happen rarely, during and after heavy rainfall as a last resort when the storm tanks are full, so nearby homes and businesses are not flooded – are further out to sea and further from local beaches and bathing waters. 

Crucially, this urgent work will take place alongside ongoing efforts by our Clean Rivers and Seas Task Force to drastically reduce our use of storm overflows like this one. 

These efforts, rolling out innovative nature-based and engineering solutions to this historic network of pressure release valves, are happening in the Swalecliffe area and throughout our region with a range of partners. 

We will continue to work with our partners to reduce the need to use the new outfall at all, by ensuring more rainwater stays in the environment and doesn’t enter the sewer network. 

Find out what our Task Force is already doing in the Swalecliffe area online. 

What will the works involve? 

On Monday 11 March 2024 we will start setting up our temporary storage area adjacent to the Esplanade. We’ll access this compound from inside our Wastewater Treatment Works so that plant and vehicles don’t have to travel along the Esplanade, which will remain open throughout the construction period.  

Construction of the pipeline will begin after Easter, starting inside our Treatment Works and working towards the beach.  

Once the pipeline reaches the Esplanade, installation will stop whilst a short diversion of the Esplanade is constructed. This diversion, which will be in place from late April to September 2024 to allow a section of the sea wall to be removed to install the pipeline, will be 3 metres wide and constructed of concrete with a similar finish to the existing Esplanade. 

You may also hear us undertake periods of ‘piling’, so that we can create a working area at the sea wall and provide temporary sea defence during the works.  Piling is scheduled to take place from 17 April for a period of 24 days and also from 14 June for 15 days.  During these periods, the piling will be intermittent and last for approximately 30% of the working day. 

To account for the tides, we will then be working on the beach whenever the tide is out and we have daylight. 

We’ll be using excavators and a specialist dredger – the ‘Razende Bol’. A section of the beach will be cordoned off and Beach Marshalls will be on hand to ensure the safety of the public. 

Our work on the beach is scheduled to last for 22 weeks in total and the project is due to complete by the end of 2024. 

John Penicud, Director of Wastewater Operations at Southern Water, said “We would like to thank you for your support and patience whilst we undertake this essential work.”