In Pictures: London's new 'super sewer' to end Thames pollution blight

The existing sewerage network from the 1800s was designed by Joseph Bazalgette

Last updated: July 16, 2023 | 09:07

2 MIN READ

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London's existing sewerage network dates back to the second half of the 1800s. With the size of the population set to continue to swell, the need for the £4.3-billion ($5.6-billion) upgrade has become critical.

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Thousands of engineers and construction staff have spent the past seven years creating the biggest-ever upgrade to the city's 19th-century sewers.

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A statue of Saint Barbara, patron of tunnelling, inside a shrine on the Thames Tideway tunnel building site, in west London.

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A large concrete shaft, part of the Thames Tideway tunnel in west London.

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The new 25-kilometre (15-mile) "super sewer" is 7.2 metres in diameter and snakes from west to east following the curves of the river.

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A civil engineer walks inside a 7 metre concrete tunnel at the Thames Tideway building site, in west London.

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Builders work at the Thames Tideway tunnel building site, in west London.

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When operational, it will carry sewage only when rain means the existing sewers are full to overflowing.

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Civil engineers work next to a 7 metre wide concrete tunnel at the Thames Tideway building site, in west London.

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At its height, 10,000 people were working on the project, which has seen six tunnel-boring machines forge through three distinct geologies - clay in the west of the city, sand and gravel in the centre and chalk in the east.

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