Story: Tideway
Photos: Tideway and Active360
While the River Thames has seen a drastic clean-up over the past few decades, it still faces a massive threat from sewage pollution. London’s sewerage system was designed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette in the 1860s for a population of four million people, however, the population has now doubled to eight million! While the Victorian sewers are still in excellent working condition, they are full to capacity and regularly spill sewage into the River Thames from overflow points along the embankment.
Celebrating a cleaner River Thames
The Thames Tideway Tunnel
The Thames Tideway Tunnel, a 7.2m diameter interception and transfer tunnel running up to 65 metres below the river, has been designed to intercept these overflow points and prevent tens of millions of tonnes of raw sewage pouring into the river each year. Starting in west London, the proposed route for the main tunnel generally follows the River Thames to Limehouse, where it then continues north-east to Abbey Mills Pumping Station near Stratford. There it will be connected to Thames Water’s Lee Tunnel, which will transfer the sewage to Beckton Sewage Treatment Works.
The project has been split geographically into three main construction works contracts: Central, East and West – and work is well underway in each of the sections ahead of the start of tunnelling later this year. The main tunnel will be dug by four tunnel boring machines (TBMs), while two smaller TBMs will also dig connection tunnels from Wandsworth and Greenwich.
Once complete, the Thames Tideway Tunnel will collect sewage before it enters the river and ensure it is properly treated, cleaning up the river for future generations of Londoners. This will help to prevent fish kills and allow the river to sustain a rich, diverse array of wildlife. It will also address the growth of sewage-related litter, visible on the surface of the river and on the foreshore at low tide. The deadly effect of litter pollution on wildlife in waterways around the world has been brought into sharp focus in recent times through campaigns in the media.
Andrew Triggs Hodge, a former Olympic gold-medallist rower who now works at Tideway as a programme manager, said, “As someone who has regularly rowed on the River Thames, I have experienced rowing through raw sewage and the litter that comes with it. Anyone who uses the river for sport will have experienced it, and maybe even have got sick because of it. It’s unacceptable that this still happens in a modern, world leading city like London.”
Foreshore Festival
To celebrate the opportunities a cleaner River Thames holds for river communities once the tunnel is complete, around 2023, Tideway is hosting its own Foreshore Festival on September 23, with an array of sports activities in west and east London.
The crowning event of the Foreshore Festival will see hundreds of paddleboarders taking part in the Big Ben Challenge – the biggest race of its kind on the River Thames – from Putney Embankment to Big Ben and back. Earlier in the day, 20 experienced SUP racers will compete in the London Crossing, in the first SUP race right through central London, 15.5km race from Putney to Shadwell.
These iconic events, run by Active 360, will see some of the country’s best paddleboarders leave the seas behind them and head inland to take on the challenge of the river through central London. The Big Ben Challenge will give safe passage to a popular event to see everyone else get their chance to paddle to the houses of parliament.
For everyone else who doesn’t have a paddleboard, an array of activities will take place on the foreshore from 10am-5pm, in Putney Embankment and Shadwell Basin. Visitors will have the opportunity to try out kayaking, rowing and paddleboarding, while a beach combing session will explore the hundreds of years of Thames history, as well as uncovering the ecology of the river and the threats that face it.
The festival will also offer an opportunity to find out more about the giant tunnelling machines that will start digging the super sewer later in the year, and to learn how Tideway is helping to tackle sewage pollution in the River Thames – making it a more pleasant place for the animals that live there, and the people who use the river. Other activities in partnership with organisations including the RNLI, London Youth Rowing and Museum of London Archaeology will also be on offer.
Andrew said, “While work is underway to build the super sewer, Tideway’s vision extends much further than just building a tunnel. Our ultimate goal is to ‘reconnect Londoners with the River Thames’, to see a rejuvenated River Thames used increasingly for recreation, transport and freight, while protecting its wildlife.”
As well as the future legacy of a cleaner river, Tideway is already actively working towards rejuvenating the use of the river. The company aims to move 90% of materials to and from site by river. This involves training a future generation of river workers and the company has helped set up the Thames Skills Academy to achieve this. Anyone working on the river for Tideway goes through extensive training to ensure the highest standards of health and safety.
Tideway also supports the Thames River Watch programme, by environmental charity Thames21 to raise awareness about issues affecting the health of the River Thames. Volunteers complete water quality and litter surveys and take part in foreshore clean-ups, and Tideway volunteers can often be seen out on the foreshore collecting litter.
Andrew said: “The River Thames is at the centre of everything we do, and it’s fantastically rewarding to see the tangible impacts our work is already having.”
To learn more on Tideway, the super sewer and its future impact on London, see the BBC mini-series on the project @: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bc2h13
