London’s first super-sewer to open next week

The Lee Tunnel, London's first super-sewer, will be open at an event attended by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson next Thursday (28 January), Thames Water has confirmed.

The £678 million tunnel will increase the capacity of the sewer network and prevent millions of tonnes of sewage from Thames’ Abbey Mills pumping station – which accounts for 40 per cent of the total discharge – from polluting the rivers.

The Lee Tunnel is London’s deepest tunnel, and the biggest project in the history of the UK’s water industry since it was privatised in 1989.

Construction work started in September 2010 to build the 80-metre-deep shaft at Beckton sewage works.

In 2011, Thames Water lowered its 120-metre-long custom-built tunnel boring machine into position 80 metres below the capital.

In 2012, the machine began constructing the seven-metre diameter tunnel, and finished tunnelling in January 2014.

The Lee Tunnel is the first of two super-sewers which Thames Water says will “dramatically improve” the health of the Rivers Lee and Thames in the capital.

Construction on the Thames Tideway Tunnel, which will eventually link into the Lee Tunnel, will start later this year.

Ofwat has said it wants customers to get 70 per cent of any underspend on the tunnel, with the rest going to the recently appointed infrastructure provider (IP) Bazalgette Tunnel Limited.