SOUTH East Water played host last Thursday to around 60 people who dropped in to Butts Primary School to learn more about the work associated with the installation of a £1.4m scheme to secure water supplies for people living at the south-west end of town.

Project team members from the water company were on hand to answer questions about traffic management, access to properties, and the route of the new pipeline.

Work on the project will start on Monday, January 23, and will see 1.8 miles of new pipeline laid along the A339, from its junction with the B3349 Odiham road, up Pertuis Avenue and Whitedown Lane, around The Butts, along Butts Road and under the bridge to link up with the B3006 Selborne road, from where it will cut eastward across country to join up with the B3004 Caker Lane at its junction with Windmill Hill.

The highways section of the project is expected to take approximately 28 weeks (four months) to complete during which time, in a bid to keep the workforce safe and disruption to a minimum, temporary traffic lights will be in place on a rolling basis along Whitedown Lane, Butts Road and the Selborne Road.

Three-way lights are expected to be in place at the New Odiham Road roundabout and at the junction of the B3349 with Whitedown Lane from January 23 to February 5, gradually moving along the road to arrive as two way and three-way lights at the junction of Bolle Road and Chawton Park Road from March 17 to April 2.

A temporary road closure will also be implemented while the new main is laid around The Butts – anticipated to be in place between March 27 and May 14, with the closure on the residential cul-de-sac along the western side of The Butts.

Butts Road will not be closed but will be subject to three-way traffic lights, scheduled for May 8-19, moving to the bridge from May 19 to June 18, with four-way lights at the double roundabout from June 19 to July 2, and a lane closure on the Selborne Road between July 3 and 30, before the work heads off across private fields to link up with the Windmill Hill reservoir.

Forming part of the company’s £424m investment programme between 2015 and 2020, the new pipeline will ensure South East Water can continue to maintain water pressure to the town and also secure water supplies in Alton for the future by providing more flexibility in moving water around the network of underground pipes.

South East Water project manager Stephen Bundock said: “I would like to thank those who attended the drop-in session and provided us with information that we can use before we start the scheme.

“It was good to speak to members of the Alton community and to explain the need for us to lay the new pipe here.

“To minimise disruption to local residents and motorists during the scheme, temporary traffic lights will be in place and we will be working in short sections which means we will only have lights along a small section of the road at a time while we lay the new pipe and fully re-open this section of road before we move to the next section.

“In addition, we will need to close The Butts temporarily.

“We know roadworks can be frustrating but our number one priority is keeping the public and our workforce safe and this is the only way we can do this.”

In giving an assurance that access to properties and businesses will be maintained at all times, Mr Bundock added: “Regular updates on the pipeline scheme and the progress we are making will be available on our dedicated project webpage.”