Drivers warned of delays as work starts on Horsforth flood scheme
Work has started on the first of three storm overflow projects - with road users warned of disruption at Horsforth Roundabout.
Yorkshire Water has started building work on an underground storage tank on Fraser Avenue, in Horsforth, with further schemes planned to start on Newlaithes Road and Newlay Grove in spring and summer 2026.
Together, the £3m investment will create 300m3 of stormwater storage – which will hold three million litres of storm water - to help reduce discharges into the River Aire.
The storage tank on Fraser Avenue will build additional capacity into the network, holding excess wastewater during periods of bad weather to prevent it from being discharged. Flows will be sent for treatment when capacity in the network has returned to normal levels.
Lydia Mitchell, project manager at Yorkshire Water, said: “Our storm overflows are operating more often than we, and our customers, would like, and projects like these are helping us to bring those figures down.
“The Fraser Avenue scheme is just one of 37 planned storm overflow projects in Leeds over the next five years, and one of the first of nearly 500 storm spill reduction schemes across Yorkshire over the next five years.”
A lane closure in place from Fraser Avenue towards Horsforth Roundabout from for four weeks.
The projects will contribute to reducing the number of discharges from overflows in Leeds by 72 per cent, by 2030.
Storm overflows are designed to act as a relief valve for the combined sewer network, which carries both wastewater and surface water, during periods of heavy or prolonged rainfall.
They discharge when the system is at capacity to prevent flows backing up and flooding homes and gardens.