London ‘super sewer’ now fully built

The Thames Tideway Tunnel is a 25km-long sewage tunnel designed to dramatically reduce sewage pollution in the River Thames.

Tideway said that in a typical year, tens of millions of tonnes of storm sewage spill into the Thames. Once fully operational, the new infrastructure will reduce those spills almost completely. 

The construction was reported as completed after the lifting and addition of a 24m-wide circular concrete ‘lid’ over the shaft at Abbey Mills Pumping Station in Stratford, a process which Tideway said took around five hours.

In a statement, Andy Mitchell, Tideway CEO, said: “This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. The underground civil engineering on the Tideway project is now complete following eight years of dedicated hard work from all our teams working in the capital. 

“There is still work to do – we need to finish some above-ground structures and, crucially, test the system – but this nonetheless marks an absolutely critical milestone for the Tideway project and for London.”