Opposition to London "super sewer" forces Thames Water to revise plans

Carys Matthews in edie.net: Thames Water has unveiled revised plans to use brownfield sites, rather than greenfield, as part of its London Thames Tunnel project, resulting in £500m in additional costs. The second consultation on plans to build a "super sewer" under the Thames in London was launched last week (November 4) by Thames Water, which has now revised its earlier construction plans in response to opposition and feedback gained from its first consultation.

Under the latest proposals, the tunnel would run beneath existing infrastructure to transfer sewage that currently spills into the tidal Thames, to Beckton Sewage Treatment Works in east London, this would link with the Lee Tunnel, which is already under construction.

The project has been the subject of much controversy, despite the initial plans being approved by the London Assembly in December last year. Thames Water says the revised plans have taken public concerns over environment issues and long-term disruption into account. As a result, alternatives to the two greenfield sites at Barn Elm playing fields and King's Stairs Garden have been found, along with the implementation of measures to minimise the overall disruption caused during construction.

However, the use of brownfield alternatives, as well as other factors, is estimated to increase costs by about half a billion pounds, with the overall cost for the project calculated to be £4.1bn at 2011 prices. This is estimated to add around £70 - £80 a year to the average bill from 2013....

The Northern Outfall Sewer flows into Beckton Sewage Works The Northern Outfall Sewer drains much of London north of the Thames. Here it flows into the Beckton Sewage Treatment Plant 1481871 for cleaning up before flowing into the Thames. Shot by John Rostron, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license