Chelsea Flower Show will be hit by three years of 'supersewer' disruption

New feature: Kim Sears at the flower show in 2014

The tranquillity of Chelsea Flower Show could be shattered by three years of disruption from drilling and lorries shifting mud to build the Thames supersewer.

A 12-metre-wide access shaft will go 45 metres down beneath the Royal Hospital Chelsea’s grounds, which host the event each May, to join the main Thames Tideway Tunnel. Work is due to start next autumn and to end in 2020, meaning three shows could be affected.

Some 450 square metres of Ranelagh Gardens in the grounds will be fenced off for the works — which will take place until early evening Monday to Friday and until lunchtime on Saturdays, although there will also be a “short period” of 24-hour operations.

Excavations will happen close to the Bull Ring Gates, the main entrance for the Royal Horticultural Society show.

More than 40 lorries will visit the site on peak days using narrow Chelsea Embankment to carry away spoil, according to council documents, and river barges will also be used. Drilling machines will be “screened or enclosed” to dampen noise for the link to the £4 billion supersewer.

A CGI of how the shaft will look on Chelsea Embankment foreshore

Kensington & Chelsea council warned of “potential implications for the setting of Ranelagh Gardens” and the “impact on views to the river”. The riverside footway will be closed and pedestrians diverted. Once works are completed, the foreshore will be extended into the river to accommodate the shaft. Hatches for tunnel maintenance, equipment and ventilation will protrude above ground. Thames Water said the digging is crucial as the existing overflow mechanism cannot cope in heavy rains.

Every year the site suffers about 26 discharges of untreated effluent into the river, which Thames Water says will be reduced to two by the supersewer. RHS head of shows Nick Mattingley said Thames Tideway Tunnel and National Grid had given assurances “that all work being done is happening outside of the show perimeter and we are working with both parties to ensure disruption is minimal during opening times”.

Gary Lashko, chief executive of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, said they have been promised “minimum disruption” for the Chelsea pensioners.

Thames Water said: “We will be working in an area of approximately 450-square metres in Ranelagh Gardens from September 2017 for approximately three years."

Chelsea Flower Show 2015 winners

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