The Typhoon system from Hydrascan was developed in response to a challenge set by Northumbrian Water for an efficient means of cleaning the larger trunk mains as part of its four year £30 million mains cleaning programme. The scheme will improve drinking water quality to 500,000 people in South East Northumberland, North Tyneside and the north of Newcastle.

The water jetting technology uses a tethered ‘pig’ system developed from technology used in the oil & gas industry and enables contractors to clean pipes ranging from 6 to 60 inches in diameter. Requiring only a single entry point the system cleans up to 1 km of pipe at one time and will save water authorities and their contractors millions of pounds in the cost of excavating and re-routing traffic for extended maintenance projects in both rural and urban environments.

Stuart Tilley, Northumbrian Water project manager said: “The Hydrascan system has proved well suited to working in urban environments due to its small site set-up, the achievement of high specification cleaning over long lengths and the ability to negotiate bends, valves and fittings in the network. The environment is at the core of what Northumbrian Water does – an added benefit to this technology is that the water re-cycling feature clearly contributes to the low carbon footprint of the system. I’d like to congratulate the team on their well deserved award and look forward to working with them in the future.”