A KEIGHLEY firm has carried out a £1 million contract to supply and install pipework for a sewage treatment works in Manchester.

Workers at Powerrun Project Management Ltd in South Street won the contract for Davyhulme Sewage Works, near the Trafford Centre.

The company's managing director, Paul Moore, said: "It included the biggest pipe that we have ever made, and this is probably also the biggest steel pipe made for a UK sewage works by anyone.

"It was quite technically challenging and it was a tight programme, so the work had to be done fast.

"All the separate lengths of pipe we'd made had to be welded together on site in Manchester. We employed 24-hour shifts, with continuous working for eight to 10 weeks in order to keep to the programme. This started in July and ended in October.

"We're very pleased with how it has gone. The experience we gained with being part of the Lee Tunnel scheme contributed to our success with this contract."

Powerrun successfully completed the Lee Tunnel contract worth nearly £4 million to help combat water pollution in London.

The company was given the job of designing, making, testing and delivering a huge quantity of large diameter stainless steel pipework for the tunnel, which runs under the London Borough of Newham.

This was the largest ever single subcontract order carried out by Powerrun in its 25-year history.

For its Davyhulme Sewage Works contract the firm had to make, and install 180 metres of 3.2 metre diameter, 25 millimetre thick carbon steel pipework, which terminated in a 3.5 metre diameter, 20 millimetre thick 90-degree bend.

The pipework had to be delivered to Manchester in 4.5 metre long sections, each of which weighed about nine tons.

These were welded together on site to form one long conduit. The huge, 90-degree bend assembly was also put together in Manchester, and weighed more than 49 tons once complete.

Mr Moore said that some of the manufacturing of the pipework was subcontracted, but most of it was made in Keighley.

Powerrun, which employs about 30 people at its base in Beech Mills, is now in the design stages of a new contract worth £800,000 to supply and install pipes for a new water treatment facility in Plymouth.

It has also been awarded a £175,000 order for stainless steel pipework destined for Bran Sands Sewage Treatment Works, near Redcar.

Mr Moore added: "It is good news, and follows on nicely from the job we've just finished. We've taken on another design engineer because of all the additional work."