Did you know that a 25km ‘super sewer’ tunnel, running from Acton to Limehouse and then out to Beckton, is being built below the streets of London as we speak? It’s true. Engineers have been working on the Thames Tideway Tunnel since 2014 (it’s due for completion in 2023) to give our sewer system a much needed upgrade. The Victorian system we’ve currently got was built after The Great Stink of 1858 (when waste was just dumped in the Thames), and whilst it’s in pretty good nick for something so old, it was designed to cope with a population of around four million people. We’re now approaching nine million, so our system is over capacity and that means the Thames gets the overflow. And that’s not good, especially for the wildlife.
That’s where then fancy £4.2 billion Tideway Tunnel comes in. Take a look at what this mega piece of engineering is all about.