Work on the Thames Tideway Tunnel – London’s new 25km super sewer – continues apace above and below the capital’s streets.
This immense project has been almost a decade in the making, but the finishing line is gradually working its way into view.
With the main tunnelling being completed in 2022, the focus since has been on completing all jobs needed to prepare the sewer ahead of its planned activation in the first half of 2025. This includes lining the tunnels, installing huge lids on the shafts where tunnel boring machines were lowered underground, and reviving worksites into usable public spaces.
The history of Livett’s involvement with the Thames Tideway Tunnel
Our contributions to the project stretch back to 2017, when we began delivering office cabins and announced the construction of eight new Tideway Class barges. These purpose-built, state-of-the-art barges added over 11,000 tonnes of much-needed capacity to the River Thames.
The first of these, Churchill, arrived in early 2018 and was put straight to work at Tideway’s Carnwath Road site, collecting spoil to be deposited at a site in East London. Sister barges soon arrived and were welcomed to the Thames with a ceremony at Butler’s Wharf Pier.
During the course of our involvement with the western section of the super sewer, some 850,000 tonnes of spoil from the tunnelling process were removed via barge. This removed an incredible 25,000 lorry movements from London’s congested roads, reducing CO2 emissions by up to 90%, and earned us victory in the Environment & Sustainability Initiative of the Year category at the 2019 British Construction Industry Awards.
In 2019 we also commenced delivery of tunnel segments, utilising our fleet of quality tugs and barges. We continued to work on the Tideway project throughout lockdown too.
What we’re still working on
Although the bulk of our involvement in the construction of the tunnel is now complete, we’re still delighted to be contributing.
Since December 2022, flat top pontoons Rover and Sidney L have been working on behalf of the Ferrovial and Laing O’Rourke consortium (FLO) to support activities on the central section of the tunnel.
Work undertaken includes supporting the derig of various worksites, as well supplying and removing materials – in turn helping to remove more lorry movements and alleviate road congestion.
In addition, Eddie C has been deployed as a safety boat at the Blackfriars site between Monday-Friday – a role performed admirably week in, week out since the very start of the project in 2017.
We continue to be immensely proud of our work on this legacy project, which is certain to transform London and the River Thames for generations to come.
We’ll keep you posted on all further goings-on, so stay tuned to our website for more.
We offer a wide range of marine civil engineering services on the River Thames, River Medway, and connected south-east waterways. Please contact us with any enquiries or to find out more.
