A team of divers working in the River Thames have surpassed 1,000 dives on Tideway without incident.

As tunnelling progresses deep below, the divers have been working at the Blackfriars Bridge Foreshore, Chelsea Embankment and Victoria Embankment sites, on the in-water structures such as cofferdams and combined sewer overflows.

The 1,000th dive was completed at Blackfriars Bridge Foreshore, one of over 800 dives at this site, as the team installed a diamond wire saw onto a concrete cutting frame as part of the works to remove the concrete toe of the embankment river wall. 

Working in the tidal Thames with zero visibility requires enhanced levels of teamwork and communication to ensure the jobs are completed efficiently and safely. Each individual dive requires a team of five, with this number increasing to seven when two of the team are entering the water. The rest of the team are responsible to checking the diving equipment, providing rescue cover and ensuring the working divers remain safe in the water.

Alex Wood, Dive Supervisor, said “I’d like to pass on my thanks and congratulations to all of the site teams and support staff who have contributed to this fantastic achievement working at Victoria, Blackfriars and Chelsea. The divers especially have worked tirelessly to safely fulfil each and every task that was asked of them, often in the most challenging and undesirable conditions, with great enthusiasm"

"The enjoyable part of being on Tideway is the shear variety of tasks that we are expected to perform, it really has seen us utilise a whole plethora of tasks, tools and methods."