Kielder Valve Tower and Dam

Kielder Reservoir project was a major infrastructure project on a scale that remains unsurpassed in the UK. The ambition to secure water supply to the percieved demands of the booming Teesside steel and petrochemical industry was driven by publically owned regional water boards. This technically complex infrastrucutre project would all but be redunctant by the time of completion due to the decline of industry on Teesside in the early 1980s.

The valve tower along with wider Kielder project was designed by Frederick Gibberd and Partners for Northumbrian Water in 1975 as a joint venture between AMEC & Balfour Beatty, completing in 1981. The tower is raised over 60m from the reservoir bed was built using a continuous concrete pour process over a 10-day period. It connects to an ‘arid tunnel’ which runs through the tower, underneath the dam and discharges to the valley below.

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