Tideway, the company building London’s super sewer, has published its seventh annual report and accounts after a year in which tunnelling was completed.

Construction work was 77 per cent complete at year-end, with a number of key milestones achieved, including securing a further £300m of green financing to complete the project.

With the tunnelling phase now complete and good progress being made on the secondary lining, the focus is turning toward connecting the super sewer to the existing infrastructure, while building the above-ground public spaces.

Tideway Chair, Sir Neville Simms, said: “I am very pleased with the progress we have made on the project this year, not just in achieving the completion of tunnelling but in the way our teams have adjusted to the ‘new normal’ of delivering vital infrastructure in this post-pandemic world.

“Our primary focus continues to be on the health, safety and wellbeing of everyone working on and around our sites, highlighting our ambition to do things safely or not at all.

“This year we also secured the capital to take us to completion of the project in 2025.”

The cost of the project for Thames Water bill payers remains well within the £20-£25 annual cost range first set out in 2015, while the completion date remains at 2025 following another year of progress. The capital cost of the project is £4.3bn, representing an increase of two per cent.

This year, the year of COP26 and a keen public focus on protecting the natural environment, Tideway has supported Groundwork London’s ‘Our Space Awards’, in which funding has been allocated to more than two dozen grassroots projects across the capital to make London greener and more resilient to climate change.

In addition, Tideway’s commitment to use the river (instead of the road) to transport construction materials has prevented more than 650,000 HGV trips and saved around 27,000 tonnes of CO2e to date.

Andy Mitchell CEO said: “We have now hit our most significant milestone to date – the completion of tunnelling. The hard work and diligence from the entire Tideway team has been invaluable in getting us to this point.

“And I’m pleased to report that for the first time, our work is as much about what we’re building above ground as it is about the super sewer, deep beneath Londoners’ feet. Our vision has always been to reconnect London with the River Thames, and with new areas of public space beginning to take shape, it’s great to see the visible legacy of the project on the surface.

“Still, we have work to do. Good progress is being made on the secondary lining of the tunnel and we’re focussing more and more on connecting this infrastructure to Bazalgette’s Victorian network – but the end is truly in sight, and a healthier River Thames is closer than ever.”

For imagery – https://flic.kr/ps/3YFhrk