It may look like something from the new Transformers film, but this mean machine is the secret weapon in the region's historic £125 million Liverpool to Manchester water pipeline.

The two metre diameter drill is poised to carve out the scheme's first tunnel at Haydock, allowing the pipeline to pass seven metres beneath the M6 while the traffic keeps flowing.

Stretching from Prescot Reservoir in Merseyside to Woodgate Hill Reservoir in Bury, the 55km United Utilities pipeline will be capable of moving up to 100 million litres of water a day across the region - safeguarding supplies for millions of customers.

Sixteen kilometres of the route will run through St Helens, from south of Eccleston to the East of Haydock Park. The route has been designed to avoid residential streets and minimise highways disruption.

The 10-tonne boring machine will craned into position this week (Friday 26 June), as it is lowered into a launch pit at a site near Haydock racecourse. It will spend an estimated forty days tunnelling beneath the motorway, before emerging via an exit shaft on the other side.

John Higham from United Utilities said: "This is a landmark moment for the project. After two years of careful planning, this tunnel is the first serious piece of excavation. It signals the start of one of the most ambitious engineering projects the region has ever seen.

"Once complete, the pipeline will ensure we can provide an even more reliable water supply to customers across the North West. It is investment work like this that our customers are helping to deliver with the money from their bills."

More than 20 tunnels will be constructed along the pipeline route, including a further three in St Helens - beneath the East Lancashire railway, Windle Island on the A580, and Goyt Wood.

The pipeline, which is expected to be completed by 2011, forms part of United Utilities' £2.9 billion water and environmental improvement programme.