A £7.5million project to boost power supplies and support the development of new homes and businesses in South Warwickshire is underway.
Western Power Distribution (WPD), the electricity distributor for the region, says it is committed to investing in its network to further improve supply reliability.
A new major substation has already been built in Wellesbourne and the next phase of the project, which is due to start in April, will involve the installation of 1km of new underground cables along Princes Drive in Leamington, starting from Myton Road.
WPD bosses say the work will help further safeguard supply reliability to more than 65,000 homes in the Wellesbourne, Warwick and Leamington area while also supplying power to the new housing developments and industrial units in Wellesbourne.
The cable laying is expected to take two weeks to complete.
During the work, traffic management will be in place to enable WPD’s contractors to install the cables.
But it will not come as good news to motorists already suffering from Network Rail improvements to the railway bridge over Princes Drive.
“This work ensures that we can provide a high level of service to these areas in the long term by improving the infrastructure and security of our electricity network, said Keith Davis, WPD’s team manager for the area.
“Our aim is to keep any disruption to an absolute minimum. Although traffic management has been in place on this section of road for a number of weeks for a different company, unfortunately we were unable to carry out our work at the same time, since it wouldn’t be safe to carry out excavations in the highway while other contractors were working on scaffolding above it.
“We are currently working with Warwickshire County Council and local businesses and residents to schedule our works to minimise the inconvenience in the area and have arranged to carry out the cable laying during half term.
“We will also be keeping customers and business along the route informed by letter and by visits from WPD representatives.”
