A great part of the water supply for the city of Manchester comes from the Lake District, about a hundred miles away. From Thirlmere and Haweswater, natural lakes enlarged to form reservoirs, the water is carried to Manchester in pipe lines and tunnel aqueducts
FROM Thirlmere and Haweswater, natural lakes enlarged to form reservoirs, the water is carried to Manchester in pipe lines and tunnel aqueducts. Thirlmere supplies about 40,000,000 gallons of water a day and Haweswater is designed to supply no fewer than 75,000,000 gallons a day.
DRILLS for boring the twenty-nine miles of tunnel aqueduct which will form part of the pipe line designed to carry the water from Haweswater to Manchester. Haweswater is being dammed by a concrete structure 95 feet high and about a quarter of a mile long. Water from reservoirs in neighbouring valleys is being brought to Haweswater by tunnels and the final supply to Manchester will be carried through twenty-nine miles of tunnels, twelve and a half miles of covered channels and seven siphons.
UNLINED TUNNELS are used for the Haweswater and Thirlmere aqueducts, except where the nature of the rock demands a lining of concrete or brick. When the waters of Thirlmere had been raised 25 feet by the building of a masonry dam across its natural outlet, the area of the lake was increased from 330 acres to 830 acres, giving a capacity of 8,256 million gallons. The aqueduct which conveys these waters to Manchester is ninety-six miles long.
A TUNNEL PORTAL on the route from Haweswater. Spoil from the workings is removed in wagons running on rails laid as the excavation proceeds. Before each blasting operation twenty-eight holes were drilled 7 feet into the working face. Sometimes as many as 250 steel bits were required for boring the drill-holes necessary for one blast. The Haweswater aqueduct follows a straighter and more direct route to Manchester than the Thirlmere aqueduct, of which the tunnel sections are 7 feet high and 7 feet wide. Water takes about two days to cover the distance from the Lake District to Manchester. All the work was put in hand by the Manchester Corporation Waterworks.
ON THE HAWESWATER SCHEME work has been in progress for some years. In addition to the building of the dam across the valley below the lake, many other engineering works have to be undertaken before the £10,000,000 scheme is completed. Some of the men wear flashlamps in their caps after the fashion of miners. The elevation of the water level at Haweswater involves also the diversion and rebuilding of a motor road. Buildings submerged in the new reservoir have to be replaced.
