ROADWORKS misery looks set to continue for commuters in Oxford this month, as it was revealed that Thames Water undertook 16 emergency repairs in the city in January alone.

In a continued crackdown on leaks, the company claims that it is fixing more than two leaks a day in Oxford, while more planned work is set to cause further delays for frustrated motorists.

A number of major roads will be affected by repairs in March, adding to the ongoing headache for road users.

Thames Water to pay £120m to compensate customers over leaks

But Thames Water says that fixing more than 420 leaks across Oxford in the past six months has saved enough drinking water to fill more than three Olympic sized swimming pools – some 8 million litres.

That follows regulator Ofwat’s decision to reject the company’s £11.7 billion plan – released in September – on the grounds that it was not convinced leakage could be reduced and that costs were 25 per cent higher than expected.

Oxford Mail:

Earlier in the year, it had slammed the company for 'not paying enough attention' to leaks, with Thames Water shelling out £120m in compensation for poor leak management.

In October, the company said it would put aside £2.1 billion to make its pipes more resilient. Estimates at the time said it was losing some 697 million litres to leaks – dwarfing its recent saving of 8 million litres.

READ AGAIN: Thames Water business plan pledges £2.1bn for leaks

Tim McMahon, Thames Water’s head of water networks, said: “We’ve been finding and fixing more leaks than ever in Oxford to help conserve water and make our network more resilient for the future.

“Many of the leaks are hidden underground and can’t be seen from the road surface, and they have been found by teams of experts using high-tech acoustic loggers and electronic sensors as well as traditional listening sticks. It’s been a huge effort, delivered fantastic water savings, and is one we’re going to keep up.”

But those repairs have caused queues on the city’s roads.

READ AGAIN: A Thames Water emergency every month on busy Botley Road

In January, Thames Water made 16 ‘immediate emergency’ repairs and 78 ‘immediate urgent repairs’ in Oxford, according to Oxfordshire County Council.

Now, according to roadworks.org, there are a number of ‘high impact’ works planned by Thames Water for the next two weeks in Oxford.

They include: Banbury Road, March 4 – 6 

Cowley Road, on March 5

Abingdon Road on March 5 and March 12

Woodstock Road, on March 2 – 4, March 7 – 11, and March 12 

Hollow Way, Cowley, on both March 7 and March 11 – 13

Ongoing work at Kingston Road until March 14

READ AGAIN: Thames Water apologises again for eight-month Green Road sewage work

Walking by more minor work in Queen Street on Thursday, Oxford cyclist David Instone said: “I find that some of the roadworks often leave (roads) in a state that is worse than previously for cyclists.

Labelling roadworks ‘very common’, the 67-year-old continued: “They have got to stop the leaks somehow but their standard of work sometimes is not that great.”

Sandhills resident Julia, who did not want to give her surname, added: “Headley Way has been a nightmare recently – driving is a problem.

“All the roadworks seem to take forever.”

The 77-year-old bus user and pedestrian continued: “You would think they could do them a bit quicker.

“They have to do them and we have to be patient but sometimes when they are going to work they put a barricade up (for a long time) before doing anything.”

Thames Water’s Mr McMahon added: “We appreciate roadworks are frustrating, especially in such a congested city, but feedback from our customers is they want us to reduce leakage.

“To do this, in the majority of cases, we do have to dig up roads to reach our pipes. To reduce disruption, we will often carry out work overnight – but this isn’t always possible due to the noise.”

READ AGAIN: Thames Water ready to crack-down on burst pipes

The company has added that in most cases it offers to repair private domestic pipes for free and that in total around 30 per cent of all leaks across the region are on private pipes. It has also trialled satellite imagery, drones and a plane fitted with thermal imaging cameras to detect leaks in rural areas.

Oxford Mail:

In August, it committed to launching a ‘full-on attack on leaks’, and warned road users of potential disruption.

In some areas of the city, including Botley Road, the company has three water mains running under the same stretch of road, some more than two feet wide.