‘Elred‘: new water for London from old assets

The east London resource development project (‘Elred’) is a much-needed new urban water supply scheme created largely from redundant assets. It consists of a wellfield, a connecting raw-water pipeline network and a treatment works; with a capacity up to 23 Ml/day, in the heart of the UK capital. Unusually, the wellfield re-uses boreholes originally drilled for temporary dewatering during construction of the recently completed Channel Tunnel Rail Link tunnels. Furthermore, the raw-water network re-uses the dewatering discharge pipelines and the treatment works is located at and re-utilises a disused pumping station. This paper describes the design and construction of this innovative scheme, including the hydrogeological and groundwater modelling studies to establish yield and sustainability of the Chalk aquifer.