Engineers constructing a new 19.5km water pipeline to protect water supplies in Essex have reached a major milestone.

Essex & Suffolk Water is investing £20m in the new pipeline, linking and balancing the use of water resources in the northern part of the county with those in the southern part, and adding resilience to supplies for more than 370,000 customers.

More than half of the pipeline has now been laid, with 10km of pipes now in the ground and reinstatement of land underway.

The pipeline will be capable of carrying up to 50 million litres of water a day.

Daniel Wilson, Project Manager at Essex & Suffolk Water, said: “This is an exciting scheme for Essex, which will help to support customers’ supplies and also protect the environment by enabling even better management of our county’s raw water resources.

“Our teams and the pipes that have been laid out across the pipeline route from Layer-de-la-Haye to Langford have become a familiar site for those living and travelling through the area. However, as we move into the second half of the pipelaying process, our presence will slowly reduce as we work towards completion of this element of the project later this year.

“Our teams continue to work apace, and we anticipate pipelaying to be completed by November, followed by the completion of work to commission the pipeline and put it into operation.”