Barhale’s £16M Yorkshire Water reservoir: design and risk notes for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on New Civil Engineer
30 Second Briefing
Barhale has secured a £16M, four-year contract to construct a new service reservoir in Scarborough for Yorkshire Water, strengthening potable water storage and network resilience on the Yorkshire coast. The project is expected to involve significant reinforced concrete tank construction, complex temporary works and tie-ins to existing trunk mains, with careful management of groundwater and coastal geology during excavation. For contractors and designers, the scheme signals continued investment in UK clean water infrastructure and upcoming demand for geotechnical, structural and pipeline interface expertise.
Technical Brief
- Contract value fixed at £16M over a four-year delivery window with Barhale as principal contractor.
- Barhale’s remit is described as design, construction and maintenance, implying a D&B plus aftercare model.
Our Take
Barhale’s £16M Yorkshire Water reservoir award follows closely on its £17M Greenwich Trunk Main contract for Thames Water, signalling that the contractor is consolidating a niche in UK potable water resilience projects across both northern and southern networks.
The Scarborough service reservoir adds to a cluster of Barhale works in constrained urban and rail-adjacent environments (as seen on Thames Water’s Greenwich Trunk Main and North East London schemes), suggesting Yorkshire Water is buying in experience with complex access, third-party interfaces and live-network tie-ins.
Within our 843 Infrastructure stories, Barhale appears repeatedly in water-sector upgrades rather than greenfield build, so this Yorkshire project is likely to lean heavily on refurbishment, integration and sustainability-driven optimisation of existing Yorkshire Water assets rather than stand-alone capacity alone.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
Related Articles
Related Industries & Products
Construction
Quality control software for construction companies with material testing, batch tracking, and compliance management.
Mining
Geotechnical software solutions for mining operations including CMRR analysis, hydrogeological testing, and data management.
QCDB-io
Comprehensive quality control database for manufacturing, tunnelling, and civil construction with UCS testing, PSD analysis, and grout mix design management.