£1.4 million Melksham flood prevention project completed by Wessex Water  

FLOOD prevention measures have been given a boost in Melksham after Wessex Water completed a £1.4million project to construct a new sewer this month. 

Contractors put the final touches to the seven-figure investment in the Melksham Forest area to conclude the laying of the relief sewer in Woodrow Road and Forest Road that had restarted in March of this year. 

The new sewer is set to beef up prevention measures, with a number of properties in the area having suffered issues with flooding in recent years. 

Project manager Paul Delves said, “We are pleased to have finished this major project to introduce further measures to help with flood alleviation in Melksham. 

“A number of properties had experienced problems with flooding from the foul sewer network for which we had completed some mitigation work. 

“However, as the population in the Melksham area continues to increase, we have gone further by developing a longer-term solution to increase the capacity of the network.’’ 

The construction project initially got under way last year before being temporarily paused following the discovery of a previously-unidentified gas main that had not showed up in prior site investigation work. Wessex Water and utility provider Wales & West subsequently worked together to install gas mains alongside the new sewer, with the project being completed within an additional 14-week period. 

Project manager Paul Delves added, “This was a sizeable scheme to complete and we thank the local community for their patience and understanding while it was finished and working with us to ensure any disruption was kept to a minimum wherever possible.’’