Easing congestion in the capital

One thousand metres of trenches on the streets of central London have now been covered with our high-strength plastic plates designed to combat traffic jams.

In April this year we became the first UK utility to start using road plates, which enable motorists to drive straight over open roadwork excavations dug as part of work to replace worn-out Victorian water mains under the city's streets.

The plates are light enough to be laid over trenches by workmen during rush hour, then removed so activities can resume when the traffic dies down.

Hitting 1,000 metres is a big landmark for us. That's a lot of traffic jams averted and, hopefully, a lot of Londoners' lives made that little bit easier.

We have replaced 1,300 miles of old, cast-iron pipes under London since starting our Victorian mains replacement programme in 2002. This is an essential job that has helped cut leakage by 24 per cent in the past four years.

Unfortunately this work sometimes disrupts traffic, which why we've made plates mandatory at our mains replacement sites in central London.

At 35kg each the road plates, made from glass-reinforced plastic, are lighter and stronger than traditionally-used steel, meaning a two-man team can move them without the need for machinery.

They are designed to cover 'lateral' trenches that go across the road. Work continues to design 'linear' plates, which will enable vehicles to drive over trenches dug lengthways along the road. Plating will be a requirement for all Thames Water's mains replacement roadworks in the next five-year period, 2010 to 2015.

The plates are used at mains replacement sites on roads under the jurisdiction of Transport for London. Meanwhile Thames Water is in talks with highways departments at a number of London boroughs about introducing plating in their areas at a later date.