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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
National
Amy Duffy

Milngavie road fully re-opens after burst 160-year-old pipe caused chaos for thousands of families

A road in Milngavie has opened over two weeks after a 160-year-old pipe burst and caused the road to cave in.

More than 100,000 properties near Auchenhowie Road were left without water for hours and residents said the destruction caused looked like 'a scene out of a disaster movie'.

Scottish Water teams have been working around the clock to repair the pipe and resurface the road, which was initially closed with diversions in place and then partially opened with two-way traffic controls in place.

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The 36-inch pipe, which dated back to 1860, was removed and replaced in two sections. Scottish Water have also thanked local residents for their understanding of the works necessary.

Scottish Water’s customer service general manager Kevin Roy said: You would think in an adverse situation like this we would have a lot of negative sentiment, but we haven’t.

“We were right on it from the start, communicating and visually allowing people to understand the complexity of what we were dealing with.

The burst water pipe was dated back to 1860 (Scottish Water)



“Whilst we have had some community disruption, we have had a really positive response from the community, and we thank them for their patience and their cooperation.”

He added: “We are really pleased to see this road open and particularly proud of the team who worked to turn this round as quickly as possible. Seeing it now, it’s hard to believe the scene we witnessed just two weeks ago.

“This was a major incident, but with the resilience and expertise of our teams we managed to get this under control quickly and deliver a major repair while ensuring minimum disruption for residents and road users.



“It was roughly five hours from the burst to the point where people were back in water.

“Given the size of the main and the size of the population that was disrupted I think that was a fantastic recovery by the water operational team.

“Since then around 50 people have been working round the clock to repair the road as quickly as possible - that has included excavating all the way down, refilling, sorting all the iron work and the pavement, the kerbs and then the final bit of the black top to resurface the road back to its normal condition.”

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