WORK is set to take place on a new 5km sewer that will serve South Gloucestershire and Bristol.

Wessex Water is investing £15million into the new sewer, which will include a tunnel beneath the M4, to ensure that the current system can cope with ongoing and future housing developments.

A tunnelling project at Three Brooks Nature Reserve in Bradley Stoke is due to begin on Monday, April 24 and residents in the area are being warned that some disruption is to be expected.

Project manager, Mike Bryant, said: “Work is expected to last around six months and a temporary footpath has been put in place, meaning access to the reserve will be maintained at all times.

“Heavy construction vehicles and machinery will inevitably cause some noise and disruption, for which we apologise, but once our work is completed we will return the nature reserve to the condition which we found it in.”

The new six-metre deep underground chamber is to be built to accommodate a 1.8m diameter sewer pipe.

According to Wessex Water, steps have been taken to ensure that the sewer pipe does not have an impact on the surrounding natural habitats.

Mike Bryant said: “Wessex Water cares for the environment and we take our duties to look after natural habitats very seriously.

“We’ve carried out careful ground investigation works at the nature reserve in preparation for the scheme, in full consultation with Bradley Stoke Parish Council and South Gloucestershire Council."

The new 5km sewer pipe will run from Iron Acton to Bradley Stoke, where it will join up with an existing section of the Frome Valley Relief Sewer (FVRS) that was built in the early 1990s.

Once the “missing link” is completed, the FVRS will divert wastewater flows from Yate to the Bristol sewage treatment works in Avonmouth via a route around the north of Bristol – rather than alongside the Frome Valley and through the centre of Bristol.

Additional sewer capacity is repotedly "essential" to serve new developments in areas including Yate, Emersons Green, Bradley Stoke and Filton, where thousands of new homes are being built.