A57 Mottram Moor

WJ have an outstanding record delivering our services for key national infrastructure projects, and one of those recently earmarked by the UK National Highways is the A57 Trans-Pennine route, which is designed to alleviate congestion on the vital A57 and A628 roads between Manchester and Sheffield. In order to aid the design of this crucial update project, WJ were engaged by SOCOTEC to undertake pumping tests in the village of Mottram in Longendale on the edge of the Peak District.

WJ Rain Gauge

The village of Mottram in Longendale was earmarked for the test due to the anticipated dewatering requirements to allow the construction of a number of underpasses, cuttings and bridges along the 3.1km highway:

• Old Mill Farm Underpass
• Mottram Underpass
• Eastern Cutting
• Carrhouse Lane Underpass
• River Etherow Bridge

Due to the potentially extensive dewatering works it was vital that a greater understanding of the hydrogeological properties of the area was achieved, and WJ were ideally placed to undertake such a task.

WJ were engaged by SOCOTEC to undertake a pumping test in 2021 to better understand the hydraulic properties of the Millstone Grit aquifer (comprising sandstones and siltstones) at the proposed location of the Eastern Cutting. Upon the request of the Environment Agency WJ recently returned to undertake a second round of test pumping, with the aim of assessing the potential impacts of the dewatering for the cutting and the Mottram Underpass.

The second test comprised a single day individual well test and a 21-day multi-well test (on 3no wells).

The second test comprised both individual and multi-well tests (on 3no wells) over a period of, as well as an extensive groundwater monitoring regime (across 49no locations), including:

• Vibrating Wire Transducers
• Downhole Diver-style dataloggers
• Manual groundwater monitoring
• Spot Flow Gauging (volumetric and using a current meter)
• Rain Gauging

This complex and extensive testing and monitoring regime could only be made possible by WJ’s expertise in groundwater testing and monitoring.

• LOCATION: Mottram in Longendale

• CLIENT: SOCOTEC