Busy Milngavie road to re-open after burst pipe caused major incident

On Tuesday, January 24, we reported that a 36-inch pipe under Auchenhowie Road ruptured, interrupting water supplies to around 250,000 customers across Glasgow.

The road collapsed under the pressure of the water, with locals reporting the scene looking like “the set of a disaster movie”.

Scottish Water restored water supplies around five hours later, and since then, staff have been working around the clock to complete the reinstatement work.

READ MORE: Images reveal MAJOR hole in concrete where pipe burst near Glasgow

Kevin Roy, of Scottish Water, said: “We are really pleased to see this road open and particularly proud of the team who worked to turn this around as quickly as possible. Seeing it now, it’s hard to believe the scene we witnessed just two weeks ago.

“This was a major incident, but with the resilience and expertise of our teams, we managed to get this under control quickly and deliver a major repair while ensuring minimum disruption for residents and road users.

“It was roughly five hours from the burst to the point where people were back with water. Given the size of the main and the size of the population that was disrupted, I think that was a fantastic recovery by the water operational team.

“Since then around 50 people have been working round the clock to repair the road as quickly as possible - that has included excavating all the way down, refilling, sorting all the ironwork and the pavement, the kerbs and then the final bit of the blacktop to resurface the road back to its normal condition.”

READ MORE: Milngavie road repairs could take up to TWO weeks after burst pipe

The damaged pipe – dating back to 1860 – had to be removed in two sections. One section was lodged beneath a high-voltage electricity cable supplying the nearby Milngavie Water Treatment Works.

Other utilities including phone lines and gas pipes had to be made safe before the water main could be repaired and the road reinstated.

Kevin revealed that residents and road users have been extremely understanding and appreciative of the efforts of the Scottish Water teams.

He added: “You would think in an adverse situation like this we would have a lot of negative sentiment, but we haven’t.

“We were right on it from the start, communicating and visually allowing people to understand the complexity of what we were dealing with.

“Whilst we have had some community disruption, we have had a really positive response from the community, and we thank them for their patience and their cooperation.”