The Thames Tideway Tunnel E-Book

Phil Stride

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 315

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

In 1858 the 'Great Stink of London' made much of the city along the Thames uninhabitable. Between 1848 and 1854 nearly 25,000 Londoners died of cholera, a disease borne by foul water. Joseph Bazalgette saved the city, building sewers that would serve 4 million people and stop waste water emptying into the Thames. These sewers are still the backbone of London's sewerage system today, but the city's population is now approaching 10 million; the old sewers can't cope and action needs to be taken to ensure that 'The Great Stink' never happens again. This is where the Thames Tideway Tunnel comes in: a £4.2 billion, 25km-long, 7.2m-diameter tunnel that will stop virtually all of the sewer overflows into the Thames and give us a cleaner and healthier river and city. This is the inside story on the tunnel, from the very start to breaking ground and all the steps along the way. Written by Phil Stride, a leading civil engineer, it is a unique chance both to see behind the scenes of an incredible civil engineering project and to meet the people who've taken it forward over the last ten years.

Leseprobe

Cover illustrations:Front: Lee Tunnel. Back: Brickwork arch forming access chamber to the Fleet Main Sewer.

First published 2019

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© Phil Stride, 2019

The right of Phil Stride to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 7509 8981 7

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

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eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

CONTENTS

Foreword by Sir Peter Bazalgette

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

1   Background

The River Thames

London

Thames Water

Waste Water Infrastructure

2   The Great Stink: London Before and After Bazalgette

Early Drinking and Waste Water Provision in London

The Great Stink of London

Sir Joseph Bazalgette

Bazalgette’s Remarkable Engineering Solution

3   The New Waste Water Crisis

The Global Trend for Urban Living

London’s New Waste Water Crisis

Thames Tideway Strategic Study Group

4   Rising to the Challenge

The Programme Begins and Implementation Strategy

The Project Matures

Construction Works Procurement Strategy

Infrastructure Provider

Bazalgette Tunnel Ltd (Tideway)

5   The Biggest Challenge: Arguing Our Case

Core Concerns

Consultation Overview

Consultation in Action

Planning Application

Political, Media and Other Stakeholder Engagement

Timeline

6   Bazalgette Reborn: A Remarkable Engineering Solution

Engineering Overview

The Engineering Solution in Detail

The Contracting Process for the Construction Programme

The Operating Techniques for the Thames Tideway Tunnel

Health, Safety and Wellbeing – at the Heart of All We Do

7   Plan to Reality, and the Future

Bringing the Story Up to Date

Key Learnings from Our Experiences

Our Legacy for London and Londoners

Appendix I: Minister of State Ian Pearson MP Letter Instructing the Initiation of the Thames Tideway Tunnel

Appendix II: The Shareholders in Bazalgette Tunnel Ltd (Tideway)

Appendix III: River Thames Combined Sewer Overflows

Appendix IV: Principal Geological Features Along the Length of the Thames Tideway Tunnel Project

Appendix V: Hydrogeology and the Thames Tideway Tunnel

Appendix VI: Consultation Process Schedule

Appendix VII: Particular Thanks

Appendix VIII: The Lost Rivers of London

List of References

Notes

A visit with key stakeholders to the Fleet Main Sewer, standing behind an original cast-iron flap valve that was installed as part of Bazalgette’s sewer system.

Wick Lane under construction. (Courtesy Mike Jones)

FOREWORD

BY SIR PETER BAZALGETTE

It’s curious that if a major public project goes well, it can be taken for granted. But if there are problems, you hear all about it. The Thames Tideway Tunnel has been very successful thus far, so the usual rule applies. It’s all the more welcome, then, to read Phil Stride’s painstaking record of this unprecedented piece of civil engineering.

Eminently sensibly, the Thames Tideway Tunnel builds on the legacy and ideas of Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s celebrated Victorian drainage system for London (declaration of interest: I’m his great, great grandson). We’re still using it five generations on. I don’t believe we’re undertaking enough schemes today of ambition and vision that will benefit our ancestors. But the Thames Tideway Tunnel is just such a project. Like its Victorian antecedent, it’ll allow London to continue to expand as the world’s population gravitates towards cities. Phil Stride argues this well here. It’s about health and wealth.

There’s something reassuring – comforting, even – when history repeats itself. The Thames Tideway Tunnel relies on gravity propulsion and it runs from west to east, as did Sir Joe’s system. There have been public protests, now as then (Stride sets out a compelling blueprint for a patient and honest, modern consultation). Planning, according to Stride, was the most challenging, as it was for my ancestor when he dug up the whole of London. And the project team has needed to win the support of all major political parties – just as in his time Bazalgette negotiated funds from both a Tory Chancellor (Disraeli) and a Whig one (Gladstone).

For those of you who enjoyed the BBC2 series on the Thames Tideway Tunnel (a hymn to pride, passion and pile-driving), this book now gives you the detailed story of how the ‘Super Sewer’ was planned, designed, funded and is being executed. A valuable record for all those that follow.

It’s not just about public and ecological health, though it is. It goes beyond economic benefit, though that’s crucial. This is also about quality of life in our capital, creating more valuable public space. Now that’s what I call a legacy project.

Sir Peter BazalgetteOctober 2018

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

‘Death’s Dispensary’, a cartoon that appeared in the Victorian magazine Fun in 1866. (Courtesy Mike Jones)

INTRODUCTION

TURNING THE TIDE

THE CAMPAIGN TO BUILD LONDON’SNEW WASTE WATER SYSTEM

Man and boy. That’s how long I’ve worked in the water industry as an engineer and project manager, and nearly all of that time with Thames Water. I remember working, when young, on building sites for my grandfather, who owned a construction business with his brother. They built a lot of the impressive buildings in the Bath area, and I just enjoyed being around it all. In that sense I was always involved with building work growing up, and I loved to see their satisfaction in what they had built.

I got my career break from my mother, though, who worked in education and had an eye for my future. When I was about 15 she introduced me to three family friends in different professions to discuss ‘next steps’. One was an accountant, one a solicitor and one a civil engineer. For me there was no choice, the latter meeting propelling me on the career I still love to this day.

The first step was to study civil engineering at Cardiff University. I applied to Thames Water for student sponsorship when I was at school in February 1974 (in fact, initially applying to Swindon Borough Council, given that the Thames Water Authority didn’t come into being until 1 April that year). I was one of two such students the company sponsored, then staying with Thames Water until the formation of Bazalgette Tunnel Ltd (known as Tideway) on 24 August 2015. That means I was with the company for forty-one years, in that time having twenty-three jobs (and five in one eighteen-month period). Man and boy!

I am writing this book as a testament to all of those who have worked and strived to make the Thames Tideway Tunnel a success, a project full of superlatives. It is the UK Water Industry’s largest ever engineering project, at an estimated cost of £4.2 billion,1 which featured the UK’s largest ever public consultation and biggest ever planning application. It is also a project where all of those involved are aware of the responsibility being entrusted to them. As Mike Gerrard, former Managing Director of the Thames Tideway Tunnel, says: ‘Everyone associated with the project was motivated by the desire to do for our great-grand-children what our great-grandparents had done for us in terms of infrastructure.’

In many ways those years at Thames Water prepared me perfectly for the role of heading up, and now narrating the story of, the Thames Tideway Tunnel project. The positions I held encompassed every aspect of working for a major water utility, ranging from civil engineering and capital delivery to stakeholder engagement at every level. My roles included being the Head of Operational Control; Head of Capital Delivery; and finally, from April 2008 through to August 2015, Head of Thames Tideway Tunnel for the water utility. Since the creation of Tideway as a separate entity I have been the External Affairs Director, and am now Strategic Projects Director. Throughout this career path I have always had a very close relationship with the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), at one time being the UK civil engineering manager of the year (the only UK utility-employed engineer to do so) and ultimately becoming a Fellow in 2014. I am also a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. I have also, since 2011, been a member of the Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy Industry Advisory Panel (IAP), a role that has allowed me to transfer many learnings from Crossrail to the Thames Tideway Tunnel project. I am now chairman of the IAP.

As my years in the water utility sector have progressed, I have always felt a very close association with Sir Joseph Bazalgette, the Victorian engineering giant. I actually saw his work at close quarters for the first time when heavily involved in the development of the new station ‘F’ at the Abbey Mills Pumping Station in Abbey Lane, London. The problem addressed at the time was the amount of sewage going out into Abbey Creek and the River Lee, because there wasn’t enough pumping capacity to pump the increasing flow of waste water to the Beckton waste water treatment works (WWTW). An additional pumping station was therefore needed, to add to what was Bazalgette’s largest and arguably greatest piece of above-ground engineering infrastructure, which was a key component of his groundbreaking interceptor sewer system. One of my key roles was therefore to draft the briefing for the consultants bidding to do the design work in the late 1980s. To do that, I had to get down and dirty – quite literally – with the engineering solutions behind his original work. That was when I got my first real appreciation of his genius, and the weight of responsibility that we in our generation have inherited. In fact, when I visited the site in 1987 the original Bazalgette drawings were laid out on dusty tables in a back room.

With all that experience in engineering design, project management and directing, then as head of Capital Delivery at Thames Water, and then being in charge of the Thames Tideway Tunnel project, all threaded through with the pioneering work of Bazalgette, I feel I am uniquely positioned to tell the tale of Tideway to date. Mike Gerrard eloquently describes the nature of this story: ‘Trying to make a major project like the Thames Tideway Tunnel happen is the equivalent of waiting until there is a planetary alignment before launching a space rocket.’

Given these challenges, my real aim is to present to the wider world – whether to governments, industry or the wider public – the lessons I have been fortunate to learn in the process of bringing this new project to fruition from early 2008 to today. Additionally, this book acts as a public place of record for all of the activities with regard to the Thames Tideway Tunnel project to date. It also enables me to tell our side of what, while successful, has been an often controversial project. Certainly, being screamed at to one’s face at public meetings while trying to explain the rationale behind the programme is character-building!

A final reason for writing this book is with regard to the deserved legacy of all of us who were involved in the Thames Tideway Tunnel project, in the hope that we can encourage others to follow our career paths. As I hope will become clear as you read this book, I love engineering and all things associated with it, with the Thames Tideway Tunnel being the pinnacle of my involvement in many major projects over time. More importantly, however, I also love inspiring others to do so. For me, the most important thing about the privilege of being in a leadership position in my industry, particularly of something as enormous in scope and scale as the Thames Tideway Tunnel, is encouraging people equally to love civil engineering and to achieve their potential therein. This book is their legacy, and also the means by which I hope to inspire a new generation to get involved in our industry, and engineering more broadly.

The key driver behind the first aim of the book, to record our learnings, is set against the widely accepted view that for the vast majority of the inhabitants of the planet the future is urban. In that regard, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says that in 2014, 54 per cent of the world’s population then lived in urban areas, with this figure likely to reach at least 66 per cent by 2050. In that timeframe, by 2045, the urban population of the world will pass 6 billion. This will put increasing strain on the ability of governments, both national and municipal, to provide and maintain the infrastructure to support such dense and concentrated settlement, including waste water provision. Therefore, any learnings that can facilitate the engineering solutions that will be required to meet these challenges, especially as they will be largely below ground, and also how to communicate their necessity to the wider public, are vital.

London, of course, presents a superb example of the problems that the growing cities of the future will face. London’s population had reached over 8 million by 2012, and yet the waste water network for this mass of humanity is still largely dependent on the Victorian sewerage system of Bazalgette, sometimes updated since but still largely intact and designed to cater for a population of 4 million. This throws into stark clarity why, as I write, Thames Water has to discharge an average 18 million tonnes per year of untreated waste water (combined raw sewage and rainwater) into the tidal River Thames after as little as 2mm of rainfall (these are called combined sewer overflow (CSO) discharges, about fifty such events a year). While the rather unpleasant result of this might not be apparent to the wider public, it certainly is to those who regularly use the river for work and pleasure. As becomes evident as the narrative of the book progresses, a key factor here is that this is well in excess of the ‘exceptional circumstances’ outlined in the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD) and is clearly hugely damaging to the ecology of the river. I am often asked what would happen to this volume of discharge if the London Tideway Improvements programme hadn’t been initiated, and respond to shocked silence that the figure would rise to an average 70 million tonnes of sewage a year in the river by 2030, with a possible return of the nineteenth-century ‘Great Stink of London’ as detailed in Chapter 2.

This leads us on to the response to the issue itself, and the focus of the book: the Thames Tideway Tunnel project, the world’s first privately financed major sewage overflow tunnel. This is fully outlined in engineering terms in Chapter 6, but I feel it is useful to give a very brief outline here for the general reader to inform the earlier chapters of the book. The programme is the single most important twenty-first-century investment in London’s waste water infrastructure, building on the legacy of Bazalgette but with a view to future proofing the city’s provision in this regard. The major component is the bored tunnel itself, 25km in length, which, in large part, replicates the course of the River Thames under which it is being constructed (together with the Frogmore and Greenwich long connection tunnels and nine short connection tunnels), taking flows from both sides of the river to a significantly extended Beckton WWTW and with significant new infrastructure at many of the current CSOs through which storm discharges are emitted. To give some idea of scale, for geological and procurement reasons the main tunnel has had to be divided into three sections that are being constructed separately but concurrently:

The West section, from Acton Storm Tanks in the London Borough of Ealing to Carnwath Road Riverside in the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham. This section includes the Frogmore connection tunnel.

The Central section, from Carnwath Road Riverside to Chambers Wharf in the London Borough of Southwark.

The East section, from Chambers Wharf to Abbey Mills Pumping Station in the London Borough of Newham. This section includes the Greenwich connection tunnel.

Given this scale, and the focus on the legacy of the Thames Tideway Tunnel experience for all concerned, a Tideway Heritage Interpretation Strategy has been designed to help all stakeholders (whether internal or external) focus on the relationship between the River Thames and the completed tunnels and associated twenty-four sites via legacy commitments to leave a lasting benefit. Indeed, this is one of the key learnings from our project, that one needs to look beyond simply the building of the infrastructure itself with a view to improving the lives of Londoners after construction has been completed.

I would like to thank all those who have made this book possible. Firstly, all of my colleagues at both Thames Water and Tideway who have made this fantastic project realisable: particularly Martin Baggs, former Chief Executive Officer of Thames Water; Mike Gerrard, MD of Thames Tideway Tunnel; and Andy Mitchell, CEO of Tideway, for their unwavering support and encouragement over the years. I would also like to thank Jim Otta of CH2M, whose energy, drive and commitment over many years was critical to our success. Secondly, all those who supported the project, in good times and bad. You know who you are! Thirdly, the opponents, who have served to make the experience more memorable and to whom I hold no grudge. And, of course, my publisher for believing in this work. Others also deserve a specific thank you, for example Richard Aylard, Sustainability and External Affairs Director at Thames Water, and Nick Tennant, former Head of Communications and Public Affairs at Tideway, and my patient proofreader Simon Elliott. Also, a big thank you to Ingrid Lagerberg, Systems Engineering Lead, for diligently ensuring that the text is factually correct. Richard and Nick were hugely supportive throughout the story of our tunnel, and particularly in relation to public meetings and dealing with stakeholders. All have contributed freely and greatly to my wider research, enabling this work on the Thames Tideway Tunnel to reach fruition (and in that regard, Appendix VII lists all of those deserving of a specific thank you for helping take the programme forward at a leadership level).

Finally, of course, I would like to thank my family: my Mum and Dad, Marlene and Ted, for inspiring me to think that anything is possible, and – last but not least – my hugely supportive wife Lyn, who enabled my sustained effort over many years to be possible. Thank you all.

Phil StrideSeptember 2017

_________________

1 In 2014 prices.

1

BACKGROUND

The River Thames

At the heart of the story of the Thames Tideway Tunnel is the River Thames, the watercourse that defines the capital. The river has such an ability to reach and influence people’s daily lives that it has become fundamental to the way the whole Thames Tideway Tunnel project has been approached, particularly with regard to its long-term cultural legacy.

The River Thames originally ran through the Vale of St Albans to East Anglia before reaching the North Sea around modern Clacton-on-Sea. This route was scoured clean, however, by the mile-high glaciers of the Anglian glaciation, which by around 450,000 BC had pushed the river broadly to the channel it occupies today.1 I live close to the ‘Goring Gap’, which made the change in route possible.

It is the natural force coursing through the heart of the London, a powerful resource that has nurtured all habitation along its length for the entirety of its existence. Even today, long after the decline of the Pool of London and Docklands as two of the principal ports in Britain, it still remains a point of cultural contact between London and the world.

At 346km in length, the River Thames is the longest river solely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom (the longest being the River Severn at 354km). Rising at Thames Head in Gloucestershire, the river flows west to east through a broad flood plain. Along its length it runs through a variety of other towns and cities before reaching London, these including Oxford (where it is traditionally known as the Isis), Reading, Henley-on-Thames and Windsor. Given this level of settlement, and its location through the heart of England, the River Thames has frequently found itself at the centre of the historical narrative of the islands of Britain. Examples include the Roman conquest in AD 43 when Aulus Plautius led his 40,000 troops across the river to defeat the native Britons near modern Colchester,2 the campaigns of Alfred the Great against the Vikings,3 the Wars of the Roses (the murder of the Princes in the Tower took place next to the Thames),4 the English Civil War with its famous Siege of Oxford,5 and into the modern era, the river being set alight during the Blitz.6 Given this heritage, it is no wonder the river was called ‘liquid history’ by nineteenth-century Parliamentarian John Burns MP.7

The tideway of the River Thames, that is the part of the river subject to tides, is the 160km stretch downriver from Teddington Lock at Ham, this featuring three locks and a weir on the southern bank. It includes the Pool of London, Docklands, Thames Gateway and the Thames Estuary. The tidal range of the river in the tideway, that is the difference between high and low tide (caused by gravitational attraction of the moon and, to a lesser extent, the sun) has a substantial rise and fall of 7 metres. It is, of course, this tidal section of the river that gives its name to the Thames Tideway Tunnel and thus the Tideway business. The river has also given its name to three other areas along its length: the Thames Valley, broadly from Oxford to west London; the Thames Gateway, the 70km stretch of the river valley heading downriver from inner east London along both banks; and the Thames Estuary, overlapped by the Thames Gateway, and including the estuary of the River Medway.

Given the amount of urbanisation along its length, and the fact that it runs through some of the driest areas of Britain (even given its broad flood plain), the discharge of the River Thames is comparatively low, with that of the Severn being twice as big, and that with a smaller drainage basin. The low discharge actually exacerbates environmental issues caused by storm sewage being dumped into the tidal river during even the smallest of rainfall events.

The River Thames is the responsibility of the Environment Agency (EA), shared with the Port of London Authority in the tideway section. Expanding its resonance with all of those associated with the river, it has also given its name to many enterprises, industrial and otherwise. Historically, these have included the famous Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company (at Bow Creek, opposite the 02 Arena) which built the world’s first all-iron warship, HMS Warrior. More recently, the river’s name has been found in use among businesses as wide-ranging as Thames Television, Thameslink and, of course, close to my heart, Thames Water and the Thames Tideway Tunnel.

Two significant canals were built in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to link the River Thames to other river basins: the Grand Union Canal from London to Birmingham, and the Kennet and Avon Canal from Reading to Bath. Three other canals linking the river to other parts of the country were also initiated: the Wey and Arun to Littlehampton canal (operational through to 1871), the Thames and Severn Canal (in use until 1927), and the Wilts and Berks Canal. Thus we see the River Thames over time reaching out across the country to link far-reaching regions to its own basin, and ultimately the English Channel and the North Sea.

Along its length the River Thames has a number of significant tributaries. These are particularly important to our story as one approaches London, given their historical and current use as an integral part of the waste water network (planned and otherwise). The main tributaries on the approach to London, listed west to east, are as follows:

Running north: River Churn, confluence with the Thames in Wiltshire; River Windrush, Oxfordshire; River Evenlode, Oxfordshire; River Cherwell, Oxfordshire; River Thame, Oxfordshire.

Running south: River Ock, Oxfordshire; River Kennet, Berkshire; Rivers Loddon and Blackwater, Berkshire; Rivers Colne and Misbourne, Surrey; River Wey, Surrey; River Mole, Surrey.

Within Greater London, the tributaries (together with some man-made waterways) are specifically broken down below into those running north and those running south for ease of reference:

Running north: Stamford Brook; Counters Creek; Kilburn; Westbourne; Tyburn Stream; River Fleet; Walbrook; Hounds Ditch; Bow Back Rivers; Blake Ditch; River Lee (and Rivers Rib and Stort); River Roding.

Running south: Beverley Brook; River Wandle; River Graveney; River Effra; River Neckinger; River Peck; Deptford Creek; Ravensbourne; Kidbrooke; River Quaggy.

Once outside of the Greater London area, again moving east, there are three tributaries: River Mardyke, Essex (running north); River Darent, Kent (running south); River Medway, Kent (running south).

Briefing to rowers at the London Rowing Club, Putney, in February 2010.

Further, and clearly of relevance to this book, the famous Victorian interceptor sewers in London created by Joseph Bazalgette are also intimately connected with the River Thames and its tributaries (see Chapter 2). There is a memorial on the embankment, looking up Northumberland Avenue, to Bazalgette and his hard work.

Meanwhile, the River Thames, both in the past and today, is at the centre of the cultural experience of all of those who live in its vicinity. The river is navigable along the vast majority of its length, this being facilitated by forty-five navigation locks together with their weirs. Sailing, kayaking and canoeing clubs proliferate along the river. The Thames is also famous for its annual rowing events, including the Henley Royal Regatta and The Boat Race between the University Boat Clubs of Oxford and Cambridge between Putney and Mortlake. The river has also been used in two summer Olympic games, in 1908 and 1948.

Along its length, the water of the River Thames varies from freshwater to almost seawater, this supporting a very diverse set of flora and fauna. Indeed, the story of the river’s relationship with the plants and animals along its length is a key feature of this story, given the effect that human-related pollution has had (in the modern era, sewage), this being detailed in the following chapters. The river also has a number of adjacent Sites of Special Scientific Interest along its length, the largest being the 5,449ha North Kent Marshes.

London

The Thames has always been a living river, historically the preferred route of transport of the wealthy and a vital means of earning a living for the working man and woman. This is most evident in London, the largest conurbation along its length. Today, the city is a sprawling and massively diverse community of over 8 million.

Evidence of human habitation in the environs of London along the River Thames dates back into the darkest depths of prehistory, with the earliest evidence of pre-human activity after the Anglian glaciation being Homo Erectus flint tools found in the Thames Estuary at Swanscombe (dating to perhaps 400,000 years ago), and more advanced Neanderthal flint tools from Hillingdon (dating to between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago).8 Woolly rhinoceros and mammoth bones have been found in association with the latter.

Jumping forward in time to the era of modern human beings, we again have flint tool evidence of hunter-gatherers seasonally hunting in the London region around 28,000 BC, though this ceases again with the onset of the last glaciation to strike the north of Europe. This reached its height (the last Glacial Maximum) in Britain around 18,000 BC, after which humans again returned to the area of modern London and it is from this time that we see evidence of seasonal hunter-gatherers once again, with evidence of Neolithic farming along the banks of the Thames from 4,000 BC. From 2,000 BC, this farming became more advanced and we see increasing evidence of these first pre-Londoners taking control of their environment, for example with Late Iron Age burial mounds, bridges, raised walkways, wharfs and watermills. However, this was not a centre of power or population.

The modern city of London owes its existence to the River Thames, it being founded soon after the AD 43 Roman invasion of Britain, which took place under the Emperor Claudius. A Roman mercantile centre named Londinium, it specifically came into being because of the access the river provided to the interior of the growing province from the Thames Estuary, through which a vast amount of materials of all kinds were imported into Britain. The city developed on two low gravel hills located on the north bank of the river, which marked the first spot at which the Thames narrowed enough moving upriver to be bridged. Recent excavations by the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) on the new Bloomberg site off Cannon Street have highlighted the commercial origins of Roman London, with the preserved wood from recovered wax tablets dating between AD 43 and 53 referencing money lending and financial transactions.9 The Romans also built the first river crossing of the River Thames (the aforementioned bridge), close to the site of the existing London Bridge, and the city was later to become the provincial capital, housing the governor’s palace, fortress, amphitheatre, a basilica (law courts) and a forum (marketplace), the latter two together being the largest stone-built structure north of the Alps at the time.

In much the same way as all roads led to Rome in Italy, during the Roman occupation here most roads led to or through London, for example Watling Street (from Richborough on the east Kent coast, through London, and then north-westwards to Wroxeter, Shropshire, where it branches south to Caerleon and north to Chester) is still a feature of the city today. Then, as now, the river was also the feature that attracted industrial activity, for example iron and other metal-working enterprises on the south bank near modern Southwark. Intriguingly in the context of this book, Roman London also featured the city’s first fresh and waste water systems, with the associated lead piping and wooden conduits being found in a variety of locations across the Roman-built environment (see Chapter 2), particularly in and around public buildings.

From that point London has ebbed and flowed as it has grown into the great metropolis it is today, spreading from its ancient Roman heart (the City of London, which remains its financial centre) first westwards towards the now West End, and then exploding outwards in all directions to become one of world’s leading centres of economic enterprise and culture, with an area (for Greater London) of 1,572km2. In that regard, Wordsworth’s poem ‘Composed Upon Westminster Bridge’, written in 1802, gives a great insight into the majesty of the River Thames in London in the early nineteenth century.

Today, London has devolved government in the form of the Mayoral Authority and London Assembly, being split into thirty-three local government districts – thirty-two boroughs and the city. These boroughs range from Harrow in the extreme west, Enfield to the north, Havering in the east and Croydon to the south. The Thames Tideway Tunnel affects fourteen of these riparian London local authorities.

Thames Water

The key player in the story of the Thames Tideway Tunnel and the tideway itself is Thames Water Utilities Ltd. The business had its origins in the Thames Water Authority, founded in 1974 as part of the Water Act of the previous year, which nationalised all of the regional water utilities and water catchment bodies. They were reorganised into ten publicly-owned water utilities. Those incorporated into the new body included the Metropolitan Water Board, responsible for the water supply in London; the Swindon Corporation Water Department; and the Thames Conservancy, responsible for the management of the non-tidal River Thames.

These new organisations proved somewhat cumbersome and when, in 1989, the ten water utilities were privatised under the Conservative Government of Margaret Thatcher, the opportunity was taken to separate out once again the responsibilities for the provision of water supply/waste water services and the management of water catchment areas. Thus, with the creation of Thames Water, the National Rivers Authority (which later became part of the EA) took on responsibility for river and channels management, navigation and regulation, while the newly privatised water utility took on all of the other roles previously managed by the Thames Water Authority. Sir Roy Watts, Chairman of Thames Water, played a major role in the privatisation process. This showed foresight, energy and outstanding leadership. He died following a fall in the River Thames in 1993, with his body being discovered 46m from Westminster Bridge.

I joined Thames Water in 1974, and so had a front row seat as a very local-authority-type organisation evolved into a commercial business. The push for ever more efficiencies led to a drastic reduction in the operational workforce. Thankfully, one aspect that has survived to this day is the public service ethos.

Meanwhile, other organisations relevant to the Thames Tideway Tunnel story were also being established as part of the new national water utilities infrastructure, for example water services regulator Ofwat, who were given a remit to protect the customers of the new private water utilities. Later, in 1990, the Drinking Water Inspectorate was created to monitor water quality and safety. Today there are twelve major water utilities in the UK, these being Anglian Water, Dwr Cymru (Welsh Water), Northern Ireland Water, Northumberland Water, Scottish Water, Severn Trent, South West Water, Southern Water, Thames Water, United Utilities, Wessex Water and Yorkshire Water. This wider industry is now regulated under the Water Industry Act 1991.

Superlatives abound when describing the vast responsibilities of Thames Water; for example, it supplies 2.6 billion litres of tap water a day to 8.8 million customers. Similarly, and topically for this story, it also treats 4.4 gigalitres of waste water for 14 million customers using 350 Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTWs), including the one at Beckton in east London, which is the largest such treatment works in Europe (and which is also home to the UK’s first large-size desalination plant). Thames Water also operates and maintains 100 water treatment works, 30 raw water reservoirs, 288 pumping stations and 235 clean water service reservoirs to ensure a first-class service to its customers, all through the hard work of its 4,500 employees.

The UK’s largest water and waste water services company, the business has an extensive geographic area of responsibility which includes much of Greater London, the Thames Valley, Surrey, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Kent (this footprint is the home of some 27 per cent of the UK’s population).