Thames £4bn ‘Super Sewer’ Gets Go-ahead from Government

Posted by Adam Cadwaladr on Wednesday, November 12, 2014

With another super-size UK infrastructure project on the horizon, here at Maxim Recruitment we are following its progress with great interest. The £4bn super-sewer planned for the River Thames isn’t an ‘everyday’ project and will really update the capital’s infrastructure needs. With an expected 4,000 jobs to be created we hope to be recruiting extensively to a number of organisations working on this project.

The Thames Tideway Tunnel
The Thames Tideway Tunnel or the ‘super-sewer’ as it has been nicknamed has been approved and given the go ahead by the government.

This is another large UK infrastructure project for London that will make a great deal of difference to the River Thames, a tidal river. The £4bn 25 km tunnel will start at Acton in West London and travel below the river to the Abbey Mills pumping station in the east of the capital. Sewage will be taken through Lee Tunnel to Beckton Sewage Works.

This massive new infrastructure project will help to clean up the Thames. Last year an unprecedented 55m tonnes of sewage polluted the River Thames against an average 39m tonnes usually discharged. This excess was partly due to bad weather. Excessive rains caused the drains to overflow more than normal into the river.

‘Andy Mitchell, chief executive of Thames Tideway Tunnel, said: “If the tunnel had been in operation last year, it would have captured 97% of the sewage that poured in to London’s river."

“Hardly a week goes by when untreated sewage isn't pouring in to the Thames and we are pleased that we can now start to tackle this archaic problem. This is a huge project but it’s a huge problem, and we can now get on with tackling it. It’s no easy task, but we’re confident that we can deliver this project and still achieve our aim of minimising the impact on our customer bills.”

A super-size UK infrastructure project
As can be seen, this project is long overdue. After a thorough review by the Planning Inspectorate it has now been given a DCO – Development Consent Order – and construction should get underway in 2016.

The Thames Tideway Tunnel will collect sewage from the 34 most polluting discharge points along the river. This new innovation will make a huge difference to the River Thames and to updating London’s Victorian sewers which are long overdue some assistance.

Construction will use 24 sites across London and six tunnel boring machines from five sites that will push the construction forward. The super-sewer is expected to take seven years to build completing in 2023  creating 4,000 jobs in the process.

Statistics
If you’re a statistics fan then the process this planning permission has gone through might impress.

•The planning application document was 50,000 pages long

•It included 1,000 plans

•It was accepted for examination 1 month after submission

•The examination took 6 months

•There were more than 40 days of hearings for the public and consultants to give evidence

•Over 1,200 representatives from those parties interested were considered

•400 plus written questions were also put before the Planning Inspectorate

Staying in the loop
If high profile positions in the construction of UK infrastructure are your bag, then keep in touch. As soon as the construction company to handle this project is named we can be sure of some great opportunities for those of you in this field and looking for a new challenge.

Get in touch now so that we have your information to hand as soon information is released. Call us on 0870 243 0446 or submit your CV via the Maxim Recruitment website.

Adam Cadwaladr
Maxim Recruitment
UK Office