A MASSIVE engineering scheme that will see a new 33-mile underground water pipe laid across the North West is well under way.

Now water bosses have put together a website to keep people informed about the project and how it is coming together.

United Utilities is laying 4,074 lengths of pipeline on a 33-mile trail between Liverpool and Bury via Bolton. The work is expected to last well into 2011.

Workers are currently tunnelling at Old Clough Lane in Walkden, carrying out archaeological assessments in Fold Road, Stoneclough, and doing mine working investigation near the M61 at Ringley Road West, Stoneclough.

The new pipeline is designed to keep water on tap for seven million North West residents when there is a drought and when maintenance work is necessary.

Project manager Jon Higham said: “We started preparing the way for the pipeline earlier this summer.

“We have also started to lay out sections of the pipe through the fields in readiness for putting them in the ground.

“It’s really starting to generate a lot of interest so we wanted to make it easy for people to get up close and personal to the project.”

See the website at tiny.cc/xrOcG