Murphy wins £20m-plus Blackpool pipe contract

Infrastructure contractor Murphy has won the £20m-plus United Utilities contract to construct an outfall pipe in Blackpool.

The 3.7km Anchorsholme pipe, believed to be the largest of its kind in the UK, forms part of UU’s £100m five-year programme to improve bathing water quality along the Fylde Coast. The outfall is designed to carry storm waters far enough out to sea that the quality of water close to land isn’t affected.

With the planning, procurement and design stages now underway, work onsite is expected to start in March 2017. Works will include the construction of a 500m cofferdam, enabling work below the waterline, on the beach with dredging operations out to 3.7km offshore.

The pipeline itself will be assembled offsite and transported to Blackpool for installation from August 2017. The Murphy work barge, LM Constructor, will be used for the marine operations, with completion scheduled for December 2017.

Murphy worked with United Utilities on the similar Harrowside outfall project in 2015. Steve Wong, stakeholder relations manager at UU, said: “We have worked closely with Murphy previously and the team have proven themselves more than capable of delivering such a complex scheme.”