Yorkshire Water has launched a £3.1m scheme to renew 4.6km of water mains in Thornton, aimed at improving the reliability of drinking water supplies, reducing leakage and lowering the risk of bursts.

Work started on Thornton Road at the junction with School Green and will see older pipework replaced with durable plastic mains along Thornton Road towards the A644 Brighouse and Denholme Road junction. Further sections on Green Lane and Headley Lane will also be upgraded.

The project forms part of Yorkshire Water's £406m programme to replace more than 1,000km of water mains across the region by 2030.

Across Bradford, several mains renewal schemes have already been delivered, including a £1.5m project in Laisterdyke, a £700,000 upgrade in Oakworth and a £335,000 scheme in Lower Wyke. In April, new schemes began in Keighley (£1.5m) and Bingley (£780,000).

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Scott Gammon, project manager at Yorkshire Water, said: "As part of Yorkshire Water's largest ever investment into its infrastructure, we are delivering a significant upgrade to our clean water network. We're targeting areas that are most prone to leaks and bursts so that we can deliver the quality and reliability of service that our customers expect – and that means a huge amount of investment into Bradford."

For safety, temporary traffic management is in place around the works and will move as the programme progresses. Local residents have been notified about localised disruption.

Scott added: "We'll be working quickly and doing everything that we can to keep disruption to a minimum whilst we deliver this important work."

Contract partner Sapphire Utility Solutions is expected to take around a year to complete the scheme, with the final phases still being planned.

Nearby, a separate £4.5m investment is installing a new main to link Keighley to an additional water source at Thornton Moor, helping to reduce the risk of supply interruptions during drought conditions. Further details are available on the utility's website.