NI Water in £100m mains upgrade to boost network

NI Water has awarded a major £100m contract to four companies which will be responsible for upgrading the water mains infrastructure across Northern Ireland over the next four years.

Maghera-based BSG Civil Engineering; Dunmurry-based Farrans Construction, and Belfast-based Lagan Construction Group and Meridian Utilities have been brought on board to carry out improvement works on the water and wastewater services.

The contract is at the design and planning stage. Construction is scheduled to begin early next year.

The project will assist in supporting a growing economy by boosting employment in the four firms, as well as local sub-contractors, NI Water said.

Sara Venning, NI Water’s chief executive, revealed that the £100m deal was one of the company’s largest contracts.

She said it will deliver major improvements to the water mains infrastructure.

“We are confident that the contract will provide excellent value for money for NI Water, while meeting our own ambitious targets of upgrading approximately 150km of water mains per year,” she said.

“The scheme will bring many benefits by improving water quality, and security of the water supply, as well as the environmental benefits such as reducing leakage.

“We at NI Water look forward to working successfully with our four partners to deliver a sustainable, robust and reliable water supply network for the future, and will continue to deliver an excellent service for our customers.”

Kevin Corley of Farrans said it had recently celebrated the installation of one million metres of water mains here.

He added: “Farrans is delighted to have been involved with NI Water over the past seven years.

“The strong and trusting partnership between the Farrans and NI Water teams is something which has been built up over the years.

“This partnership has been key to the successful provision of improved quality, reliability and security of drinking water supply for our customers.

“Our collaboration with NI Water has brought great benefit to our local workforce and supply chain.”