London’s Thames Tideway Tunnel super sewer is finally under construction

Work on London’s ‘super sewer’ has finally begun, in an effort to stop the flow of waste into the Thames.

Tideway workers have begun work on digging a hole with a 30m diameter, the same size as St Paul’s Cathedral’s dome, which marks the central point of a new 16-mile tunnel.

The capital’s Victorian sewers are incapable of dealing with the city’s growing population, meaning 1.2m tonnes of raw sewage has already been dumped into the river this year alone.

Proposals for what has now been officially christened the Thames Tideway Tunnel have been swimming around since 2005, but the contracts to construct the tunnel were not awarded until February 2015.

Although Londoners will benefit from the reduced levels of waste in the Thames, they are also likely to see their water bills go up by £25 in the next three years. The project is projected to cost at least £4.2bn.