New photos reveal work on 15-mile ‘super-sewer’ being built below London

1/13
Harriet Brewis @HattieBrewis12 September 2019

These photos taken deep under London’s streets reveal hidden work on the capital's 25km (15 mile)-long super-sewer.

Engineers can be seen drilling, sweeping and excavating to create the vast tunnel which will run from Acton in the west of the capital to Abbey Mills in the east.

The Thames Tideway Tunnel is expected to be completed by 2024 and aims to prevent tens of millions of tonnes of raw sewage polluting the River Thames every year.

These pictures were taken at one of the main digging sites and show workers continuing to tunnel deep beneath the surface to construct the super sewer.

Work began in 2016 and the ambitious project is set for completion by 2024 
PA

Work is under way at 23 sites across the capital with four tunnel boring machines (TBM) being used to burrow deep beneath the surface, Tideway said.

The tunnel will deepen from 30m in the west to 50 or 60m deep in the east, where it will join up with the Lee Tunnel to transport all sewage for treatment.

It will be much deeper than current sewers, and mainly follow the course of the River Thames, a Tideway spokeswoman said.

Work began on the super sewer in 2016 and the project is expected to cost £3.8 billion, according to Tideway.

Aerial shots of Thames £4.2 billion super-sewer project

1/6

So far almost four miles of tunnel has been built, with four TBMs in the ground.

Around 1.6 million tonnes of rubble and debris have been removed by the river, saving 100,000 lorry trips, the company added.

Spokeswoman Hannah Shroot said that the tunnel is at a gradient so that the sewage does not need to be pumped through.

"At the moment, millions of tonnes of raw sewage pour into the Thames every year,” she said.

"The Victorian sewers are still in perfect condition but because the population of London has grown so much they are full to capacity and regularly overflow into the river.

"The tunnel we are building is the solution to that.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in