Traffic lights have been installed as Thames Water is conducting emergency network repairs near historic homes in a village in Berkshire.
Traffic lights have been put in at the junction of Church Road and The Street in Swallowfield while Thames Water carries out emergency repairs to its sewage network.
The lights went up on Wednesday 14 January to help crews remove excess water and allow the fix to go ahead near the village’s historic homes.
Photographs show contractors from First 4 Drains using two sewage tankers to pump water away so the network can be repaired. A crew member said the tankers have been making regular trips to treatment works in Reading and Basingstoke.
“There's a damaged sewage valve, which is not helped by an ingress of water from the River Loddon. The water needs to recede so that a repair can be done. We have to manually take the wastewater and sewage for treatment. The timing is bad as the fields are waterlogged. We're sending the trucks to Reading and Basingstoke sewage works, and we've been making about eight to 12 trips a day on average.”
The wastewater is being pumped from a sewage pumping station at the Church Road/The Street junction, part of the underground network Thames Water is responsible for.
Wokingham Borough Council, the local highways authority, approved the temporary lights. Causeway One Network lists the lights as remaining in place until Tuesday 27 January.
Thames Water said: “We are carrying out a repair and the tankers have been deployed to protect the environment.”
The repair is being complicated by recent rain, which is adding to the River Loddon and the surrounding water table. The junction is close to the Blackwater River, a tributary of the Loddon.
James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter
