400 Tonne Roof Installed on New Marchmont Storm Water Tank

“Our teams have worked tirelessly to deliver this major new piece of infrastructure that will benefit this historic part of Edinburgh for decades to come.”

Paul Milligan
Communications Manager, Caledonia Water Alliance

A £multimillion investment by Scottish Water to tackle sewer flooding in Marchmont, Edinburgh has reached a key milestone.

The roof of the new storm tank was lowered into place in 41 sections by a 200 tonne crane over the course of a week in March.

Made up from reinforced concrete beams and slabs, the new roof weighs over 400 tonnes and covers the 15 metre wide by 20 metre deep tank.

With this key section of work complete, the next phase of the project is to finish installing larger sewer pipes in the local network and a new underground chamber that will divert storm flows into the new tank.

Once complete the area will be covered in soil and planted with grass and wildflower seeds.

The new storm tank will be able to hold around 3.5 million litres of storm water and will help reduce the risk of flooding to properties in the Marchmont area of Edinburgh.

Scott Fraser, Corporate Affairs Manager, said: “We are delighted that this impressive piece of engineering, key to help alleviating the internal and external sewer flooding in the area, has reached this major milestone.

“When you see the sheer scale of the storage tank you get an appreciation of the amount of storm water that will be held back from the local sewer network during periods of heavy rainfall.”

Paul Milligan, Communications Manager at Scottish Water’s alliance partner Caledonia Water Alliance who are delivering the work said; “Our teams have worked tirelessly to deliver this major new piece of infrastructure that will benefit this historic part of Edinburgh for decades to come.

We would like to thank everyone for their continued patience and understanding while we work to complete this work.”

The project is estimated to be completed by Winter 2024.