London’s £5 million super sewer project has finally been completed after eight years.
Work on the final section of the Thames Tidal Tunnel was officially completed on Wednesday, with a 1,200-tonne concrete cap being placed over a shaft in east London
Construction work on the tunnel began several years ago to address the volume of raw sewage flowing through the capital’s rivers.
The tunnel, which stretches 25 kilometers from Acton in west London to Stratford in east London, is built 67m underground in the capital and prevents around 95% of sewage pollution.
On Wednesday morning, it took about five hours to lift the giant 24m wide circular concrete cover into place using a purpose-built gantry crane.
(Tidal Road)
It took 20,000 staff eight years to build and cost £5 billion, making it one of the capital’s biggest engineering projects in recent years.
It took about five hours to lift the massive 24m wide circular concrete cover into place on Wednesday morning using a purpose-built gantry crane.
Following the completion of construction, Tideway CEO Andy Mitchell said: “This is the moment we have been waiting for. After eight years of hard work by the entire team in Beijing, the underground civil works of the Tideway Project are now complete.
“There is still work to be done – we need to complete some of the above-ground structures and most importantly test the systems – but it still marks an absolutely important milestone for the Tideway project and London.”
On Wednesday morning, it took about five hours to lift the giant 24m wide circular concrete cover into place using a purpose-built gantry crane.
(Tidal Road)
After successfully achieving this final milestone, Tideway will begin the system “commissioning” process to ensure the new infrastructure is operating as designed before being fully operational in 2025.
Tideway is separate from but funded by Thames Water, and its 15 million customers pay for the giant sewer pipe through their bills.
The tunnel has a design life of 120 years, but chief executive Andy Mitchell has previously said it could still be in use two or three centuries from now.
London currently uses a combined sewerage system that treats both human waste and stormwater runoff, but it is widely believed to be unable to handle the city’s current population.
The new super sewer will mean sewage will not overflow into the Thames but will be stored in tunnels until it can be treated.
The first sewage is expected to flow into the tunnel this summer.
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