A New Source of Water for the U.K.’s Second Largest City

Birmingham, the U.K.’s second largest city, has for a century relied on water gravitating from the Welsh mountains. With the need to enhance the security of supplies to the city and to enable the older infrastructure to be taken out of service to facilitate inspection and maintenance, an alternative water source to provide up to 250 million litres per day (Ml/d) was necessary. 250 Ml/d = 66 million U.S. gallons per day (mgd). This case study covers the process of determining the best balance of cost, engineering risk, environmental impact, and operational flexibility for selection of a new river abstraction point and a 25 km (16 mi) long pipeline. Several aspects of the project make it a challenge: the intermittent proposed planned use; the need to remain in hot standby for emergency use; the highly constrained access to the River Severn; the wide variation in the river channel; national heritage and environmental sensitivities; the unavoidable topography and the high pumping heads—up to 30 bar (430 psi); and the presence of zebra mussels (invasive species) in the River Severn. An overview and methodology for the evaluation of over 20 potential sites and 8 pipe routes is presented.