50 metres below the streets of the capital city, work has been – quite literally – in the pipeline to transform an underground sewage tunnel into London’s super sewer. Almost ten years (and a whole lot of cash) later, and the construction of the super sewer is now fully connected. Hooray! Why are we so excited about the construction of a sewer, I hear you ask? Well, sit back and allow me to explain.
The Thames Tideway Tunnel (or the super sewer, for those in the know) is a 25km-long and 7.2m wide tunnel, designed to significantly reduce the sewage pollution in the Thames. London currently relies on a very old sewage system which was initially built for a population of less than half its current size – and so (much like me if I’m expected get any work done when the sun’s out) it can’t quite accomplish what’s expected of it. Because of this, in an average year, tens of millions of tonnes of sewage spills into the river (delightful, right?). Once fully up and running, the super sewer aims to reduce those spills almost completely. So yes, it’s a pretty exciting sewer.
Well, I can confirm that the final puzzle piece has been put into place, and the tunnel is now fully connected. Construction was completed back in December and has already diverted enough sewage to fill 2,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools since then. The 16-mile tunnel will continue to divert 34 of the most highly-polluting outflows away from the River Thames. And the infrastructure is set to stop a whopping 95% of the sewage that would have previously spilt into the Thames.
Connections have been made at locations including Putney, Chelsea and Victoria Embankments, Blackfriars Bridge and King Edward Memorial Park in Wapping. The Thames Tideway Tunnel has also bee connected to an existing Thames Water asset, the Lee Tunnel.
The project is still not entirely complete, however, because – well… this is England, and so it will need to be tested against storm conditions over the coming months. Once that’s been done, Thames Water will then take over the operation of the super sewer.
Tideway Chief Executive, Andy Mitchell, said: “This is another significant step forward – with this final connection complete, the super sewer is fully up and running and protecting the Thames”. And Mayor Sadiq Khan referred to the tunnel as ‘an important milestone’ in the clean-up on London’s waterways.
Find out more about the Thames Tideway Tunnel here.